transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one, the earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast, total destruction.

Speaker 2:
[00:08] Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history.

Speaker 1:
[00:13] I just didn't know what would help me next, so I took it all, even the gun. It was time.

Speaker 2:
[00:19] Cello? American Afterlife, presented by Pair of Thieves, the number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Available now.

Speaker 3:
[00:34] I wanted the draft. By the way, as you wait on this moment of suspense, if you haven't already and you're watching on YouTube, take this opportunity to click that subscribe button, maybe the like button. You're welcome to Purple Daily. Daily Vikings Entertainment.

Speaker 4:
[00:49] Now I got to go on my phone and look at what's going on.

Speaker 5:
[00:52] Alec Lewis broke this. He's broke. He had this before everyone else. Alec Lewis of the Athletic.

Speaker 6:
[00:58] Oh, it's in.

Speaker 5:
[01:00] Whoa. And still, I'm waiting for the second confirmation. According to Alec Lewis of the Athletic, the Vikings are taking Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks.

Speaker 1:
[01:12] Caleb Banks.

Speaker 3:
[01:14] All right, Thor.

Speaker 4:
[01:16] Yeah, let's hear it.

Speaker 3:
[01:16] Tell us.

Speaker 7:
[01:17] Okay, I mean, on physical ability alone, Caleb Banks, let's get this out of the way. On physical ability alone, he is absolutely worth this slot, number one. Number two, this guy, when Brian Flores thinks of interior defensive line, this guy was born to play for Brian Flores. He's six foot six plus. His wingspan is over seven feet. He has the ridiculous first step. The movement really good for a guy that's that big. He gets into the backfield and he causes problems when he's on the field. And that's sort of the problem here with the evaluation, consistent health concerns with Caleb Banks. And then he started, you know, so it was like after he had another last season, it's like it has to have a huge pre-drop process. And he had started to do that and then he breaks his foot at the NFL combine. I would be so curious to have a member of the Vikings medical staff here with us now. And none of us stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So we can't speculate on what was in Caleb Banks', you know, the medical cards and how the Vikings medical staff ended up parsing that. But this is a pretty fascinating decision. The Vikings just took out the dice. We're at the casino right now. They just went there and rolled the dice. If you hit on this kid, you just got an amazing interior defense alignment, their biggest need, and again, a guy that was born to play for Flores, if he doesn't get right though, the durability, his body could betray him and then you just blew the 18th pick.

Speaker 3:
[02:38] What's super fascinating about this pick is the depth, this is the first one in the run, right? So they had their entire pick of this position group which, by the way, runs 10 deep through day two. I mean, if they wanted to...

Speaker 7:
[02:54] Yeah, they were zapped there too. It's another surprising aspect of it with one not having gone. And we knew the Vikings were interested in trading down. If no team is offering a trade up, you're sort of stuck, right? And so maybe that's what happened here. You have to imagine if the Vikings could have gone back a little bit, maybe they would have, but maybe there's a folded up yellow post-it note in Rob B's pocket that Brian Flores stuck in there earlier today that said Caleb Banks no matter what.

Speaker 4:
[03:20] How bad are the medicals?

Speaker 6:
[03:22] He's hurt. He's not cleared until June.

Speaker 7:
[03:25] Yeah, it's sweet.

Speaker 6:
[03:28] He broke his foot at the NFL Combine, had surgery.

Speaker 4:
[03:31] I hate feet.

Speaker 6:
[03:32] And they've come out now. No, you're not wrong, Judd.

Speaker 4:
[03:35] No, I know.

Speaker 6:
[03:35] A big guy with feet issues is a problem. But it is a problem. And it's something that will always and forever be there in a lingering thing that he has to constantly stay up for. He also had the injury concerns at Florida. I don't know if he ever finished a full season. I think he had at least one game missed.

Speaker 7:
[03:53] 2024 was the best.

Speaker 6:
[03:54] Yes. And then this year he missed how many games?

Speaker 7:
[03:57] Well, so I'm pulling it up now. I mean, he was injured in the off season. And then it was like in camp, I'm talking heading into this season. And then he gets there for the, and I think it was against LSU, it was in September. But he gets hurt again. And then he, yeah, it was week three against LSU. Aggravated the same foot injury during that game. So then he was out for the next seven games after he underwent surgery. We thought he was going to be out for the season. And credit the kid, he's a tough kid. He wanted to come back. He rushed back. Florida wasn't that good this year, but he wanted to go and finish out the season. But then you go into the pre-draft process. And like I said, it started out really good. And then he was testing great at the combine. And then he breaks the foot again. It's like, oh man, here we go again. I thought that that broken foot at the combine took him out of the first round. And before that, I for sure thought he was a first rounder.

Speaker 6:
[04:45] And the Vikings have always been pretty buttoned up when it comes to the injury stuff in the pre-draft process. They don't really like, like Thor said, rolling the dice and taking a shot on a guy that has the potential. But man, feet problems, they don't go away. They're not something that just heals and you rehab it. I mean, because that's bone issues. And that's bone issues with a guy that's very, very large. And so this is one where you're hoping, I don't understand this pick.

Speaker 4:
[05:14] I was going to say, so how does it make sense?

Speaker 6:
[05:16] I don't feel great about this pick if I'm a Vikings fan. I'm sorry, everyone. I do not think that this was a very good pick for Rob to put his stamp down as the number one pick as the GM of the Minnesota Vikings because of the question marks that come with it. When you had a chance to slam dunk on so many different players that were sitting on the board.

Speaker 7:
[05:35] Yeah, I would have traded down if I could have. But again, we just don't know if that was available to them. But Jeremiah mentioned the recovery timeline for Caleb Banks. Following up on that, the Pete Thamel, I guess, did a report yesterday that the NFL teams, they had received a letter stating, or on Tuesday, that showed that Banks was going to be fully cleared for football activities on pace to be early June, which aligned with the original 8 to 12 week recovery timeline.

Speaker 4:
[06:03] But if I may, I don't care. If he has feet problems, I don't care if he's cleared by June. It's a precursor to more problems. And you had a board full of players there who, last time I checked, we didn't talk about their medicals. So this is, flat out, I'm very disappointed. Not in the position, because you need a depth.

Speaker 3:
[06:22] I love the idea of what they're doing here, but it's fascinating that this position was untouched until the 18th pick. And, because there were a couple of unexpected grenades lobbed into the top 18, I don't know that the Vikings, in all the scenarios the Vikings cooked up, like they probably, like, oh, there's some guys here that we never simulated in the weeks leading up. It's interesting to take on that risk profile when you had your pick of any of those other defensive tackles. If you were, I do wonder, did they commit to this idea beforehand, the way that they have in the past?

Speaker 7:
[07:00] And this to me smacks of the way that they have done picks for four years, where they decide in advance, oh man, we really need the interior defense alignment, and oh yeah, I've run in the, you know, most people here in the room, we all like Caleb. But it's like, pay attention to the circumstances around you. No interior defense alignment had gone before this, and you can even toss Keldrick Falk into that group, right? But the guys that are listed as interior defense alignment, none of them off the board. Are you saying in doing this pick, where you're going to start off, you know, with that, that you view Caleb Banks as so much better than any of those other guys? And if the answer is no, why wouldn't she have taken 50 cents on the dollar just to move down a little bit?

Speaker 5:
[07:40] A couple updates here. Monroe Freling going to the Panthers.

Speaker 4:
[07:46] You've done a great job. Don't sell this guy's shirt.

Speaker 3:
[07:49] He has been killing it over here.

Speaker 5:
[07:51] And then the Eagles go up to pick 20.

Speaker 7:
[07:56] So why couldn't the Vikings have taken whatever this trade is?

Speaker 3:
[07:59] So the trade is...

Speaker 7:
[08:01] They're going to take a safety aren't they? They're taking McNeil Warren.

Speaker 3:
[08:04] It's with the Cowboys and they're swapping the 23 and the 20. And then they're getting the 114 and the 137.

Speaker 7:
[08:14] Let's just say that before that 23rd pick, I would love to see another interior defense alignment come out the board. Because if there's not one, you have to assume that offer was there for the Vikings. And no mock draft that you could look at here over the last month was Caleb Banks in the first round. And in a lot of them, you looked at the last 10 days, there was no interior defense alignment period. Exactly. So even too late rounders, if you look at a trade chart, maybe that's not great. Maybe that doesn't jive there. I think you probably could have projected that Caleb Banks was going to be available at 23. So if anyone's offering you anything, why not take it for the opportunity to pay the guy that you wanted less by getting more equity?

Speaker 6:
[08:54] I'm trying to wrap my head around this. I really don't understand this big for the Vikings. I'm not trying to poo poo on it. It just doesn't make logistical sense to take an injured defensive tackle when there's a very deep defensive tackles on day two and even into day three that are 100 percent healthy, that had a ton of production in that area. Yes, this dude is a physical phenom, but it doesn't matter if he's sitting in the cold tub.

Speaker 4:
[09:20] So, this had to be Flores, right?

Speaker 7:
[09:22] This is definitely Brian Flores.

Speaker 3:
[09:24] How much do you trust Brian Flores? I mean, the medicals have nothing to do with Brian Flores.

Speaker 7:
[09:28] He can't keep him healthy.

Speaker 6:
[09:29] If he's on the field, Flores is going to turn the student to an all-pro. But if he's not on the field, who cares?

Speaker 7:
[09:34] Brian Flores watching Caleb Banks' film, it's like the meme with Scorsese and cinema, whatever it is. But what I want, of course, but what I want to know is the head of their medical team looking over the medical sheets, what was his reaction? Right? Like, because the whole thing, it goes back to the medical thing with Caleb Banks. And of course, Brian Flores was going to be advocating for this. But again, situationally here, I would have taken a discount to move down with Philadelphia, who traded up here.

Speaker 3:
[10:06] Well, so yeah, let me just throw that. So the Cowboys, or the Eagles moved up from 23 to 23 spots. Let's come back to that in a second here. Let's give us the pick.

Speaker 5:
[10:15] And the Eagles, with that trade with their division rival, with the Cowboys, end up taking wide receiver Mekhi Lemon. Oh. God, I hope he just torches the Cowboys.

Speaker 3:
[10:23] Well, because...

Speaker 7:
[10:24] Well, AJ Brown definitely getting traded now.

Speaker 3:
[10:27] Bye-bye, AJ. Bye-bye.

Speaker 4:
[10:29] Guess where he's going.

Speaker 7:
[10:30] I think we know where he's going.

Speaker 3:
[10:32] He's going to Sedona.

Speaker 4:
[10:34] You think he's going to Patriots?

Speaker 7:
[10:35] There was a lot of reporting on that.

Speaker 3:
[10:37] Thor, would you have... Maybe you can plug this in to the Thor calculator here. But let's say the trade was the exact same to go from 23 to 18. And you're just getting the 114 and the 137. By the way, there was a seventh rounder kicked in along with the 20, but whatever.

Speaker 7:
[10:56] Hey, don't hate. Give me the terms one more time.

Speaker 3:
[11:00] So the Cowboys received the 23, the 114 and the 137.

Speaker 7:
[11:06] Oh, I would have taken this for sure.

Speaker 3:
[11:08] The Eagles get the 20 and the seventh rounder.

Speaker 7:
[11:12] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[11:12] And let's say that that was the deal available at 18.

Speaker 7:
[11:16] Yeah, I mean, on my trade chart, it's decent value even just for the 18th slot. You said 23, 114, 137. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[11:26] Which fills a gap that you have in your pick sheet right now.

Speaker 7:
[11:30] Yeah, you have the enormous gap after the fourth round. Yeah, this would have helped with that. But in terms of value, my trade chart has it the Vikings would have received 350 points in that transaction. I have the 18th pick worth 340. I hope an interior defensive lineman here is taken with the next couple.

Speaker 6:
[11:46] I would be shocked if there isn't another interior defensive lineman taking the rest of the first round.

Speaker 7:
[11:50] And that would be super embarrassing.

Speaker 6:
[11:51] It would not shock me if we make it through the rest of the night without another interior defensive lineman being taken.

Speaker 4:
[11:57] Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you basically saying that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is laughing at the Vikings right now?

Speaker 6:
[12:03] I don't know if he's laughing, but I think he's looking at going, yeah, that's a pick I would have made. So you're kind of looking at this, I just I don't understand the thought process. And that for me is really frustrating because I thought we were going to look at this draft correctly and we were going to come into this with fresh eyes and we felt refreshed. We felt and I feel like I'm sitting here going, this is the same movie that we've watched for the last three years.

Speaker 7:
[12:25] Even if it's a guy that you identify, fair enough. And maybe the medical team there, that they were more optimistic maybe, where the media, because it's a black box for us. Maybe we were a little bit more pessimistic. But read the freaking room. When are they going to start doing that too? Again, the situation that you're in, no interior defense alignment is gone. And in all the mocks leading up to this, none have been projected to go in the first round. So I don't understand pressing the issue there, in particular when you're short on draft equity and you have seven immediate need holes for the 2026 roster.

Speaker 4:
[12:58] It's weird though because I came out of the press conference that the Vikings did with O'Connell and Brzezinski on Monday really thinking that you would see the process and totally get it. Like, okay, this is how it's done. And so for us to be having this discussion right now, it's one, disappointing, but two, I'm somewhat surprised. Like I thought when you fired Kwesi that you were trying to sort of get rid of this, you know, the approach that we were baffled. And in fact, we weren't always baffled. And it was his, his first rounds weren't nearly as baffling as the later round. So I'm really, really surprised that we don't see a picture tonight that's more clear cut.

Speaker 6:
[13:35] Well, let's circle back all the way to what we started and had a question with of like, okay, why are we drafted so poorly? Why are we drafted so poorly? Well, they've heard all of that. They've heard that question that we've all asked over and over again. So then why risk a risky first round pick? With your, I mean, and Rob Brzezinski's going, hey, this is my chance to show I'm the staple. We've worked together. Hey, we've gone in, we have the think tank. Why go, maybe let's draft that guy instead of going, hey, let's just go ahead and get the safe bet, get the guy we know we can plug and play, develop and have that piece. Now, you're just going to have to answer a bunch of medical questions and I think the medical director for the Vikings right now is ripping his hair out going, I red flagged this guy two weeks ago and Brian Flores is like, yeah, I don't care about your opinion. Shut up and sit back there. We're drafting this guy.

Speaker 3:
[14:19] But what's fascinating is, I mean, at the end of the day, if you're Rob Brzezinski and you are leaning on coaching input, Kevin O'Connell has more sway than Brian Flores. So are we to take it that O'Connell wasn't in love with the receivers on the board? I mean, Sadiq was off the board if he was even thinking about a pass catching tight end. So maybe they committed, barring some crazy circumstance, they might have committed to defense before the draft, and then it feels like they committed to a position.

Speaker 7:
[14:50] That's what they do every single year. They decide in advance what they're gonna do and they don't take advantage of the opportunities that are there. And again, read the room with this. If no interior defense alignment is taken for the rest of the round, I want some serious questions asked when Robbie and Kevin O'Connell go to the dais. They need to answer some questions here. The other thing I want to know, I want someone to ask them this explicitly. What team between 19 and 23 were you projecting was going to take Caleb Banks? And if they can't answer that question, your follow up is, then why didn't you accept the trade that Philadelphia had out there for your slot? You would have paid them less than 23. If you didn't really think one of those four teams was going to take him, why did you not accept, again, even a discounted trade down?

Speaker 4:
[15:41] But the issue now is...

Speaker 6:
[15:43] I feel like we're about to start a riot in this room.

Speaker 4:
[15:45] And this goes...

Speaker 7:
[15:47] Got a call like we see it.

Speaker 3:
[15:48] Well, we could... Well, real quick, I'm curious. Are you guys happy with the pick?

Speaker 4:
[15:54] No, of course no one is. Of course no one is.

Speaker 6:
[15:57] We march on Vikings legs.

Speaker 4:
[16:00] Yeah, and they're really going to be afraid of us. Because security will be... You're going to be like, you can't come in. Okay, we'll go home to bed. But the issue here goes back to what I was talking about earlier tonight. And I think it's a flaw at the very top with ownership. And it's the need to have this collaboration of... Brian Flores comes in and says, okay, I want to go outside the box. And clearly no one said no. So, because I'm guessing O'Connell didn't say, you know what I really want? A defensive tackle. So they have this attempt at collaboration, which at its core, if it's done well, I think can work. But now we're looking at another situation where somebody has weighed in, and it's not even, we're not debating a position here. Like, that would be one thing. If we said, well, we didn't really think defensive tackle would be a great first round pick. That's a legitimate debate that could be had. We might be right. We might be wrong. But we are debating something that is fundamentally, I think, is going to be probably questioned nationally just as much as in this room right now. Yeah. And again, you took a player that nobody understands why you took them where you took them.

Speaker 6:
[17:06] Why question marks? There was no need to go into the season with question marks after the off season that we had, the hires that we had. And now let's start off the new league by saying, really? That guy? OK. I guess if you have a vision and you have a clear path for him. But by the way, he's not going to be able to do OTAs. Fantastic news, right? Brian Flores, super complicated system, lots going on. You're just going to have to sit there. And coming from a guy I represented, again, we talked Jalen Sandel. He had the exact same problem. Found out his foot was broken at the combine. He had to end up having surgery. He fell completely out of the draft when he was supposed to be a top of day three pick. He was cleared in June. He was not football ready until the start of training camp. Because there's a difference in for those being cleared and being ready to play. As a player, you can be cleared. The doctors can be like, oh, absolutely, you're healthy. But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm ready to go out there and take on a double team from Will Fries and Brian O'Neill. Totally different.

Speaker 3:
[18:04] At the end of the day, Jalen Sundell overcame the foot injuries and became a Super Bowl winner.

Speaker 8:
[18:09] That is true.

Speaker 3:
[18:10] Positive Phil is here at the 2026 Purple Daily Draft Party.

Speaker 6:
[18:14] You're alone on that one.

Speaker 3:
[18:17] I'd love to just, we do have some fan reaction over here on the Roku, in the Roku fan zone. So Leighton Jason, what's the vibe among fans here inside Hop House right now at Mystic Lake?

Speaker 8:
[18:31] Can you guys hear me?

Speaker 3:
[18:32] Yeah, we got you.

Speaker 8:
[18:34] Yeah, I just went around and did a quick survey with the fans here. Not some good grades for Rob B in his first, maybe first and only draft with the Minnesota Vikings. We got three B minuses, that was the highest grade given out by some of our Vikings fans here. One C plus, two Cs, three D pluses and four Fs. Save to say the fans are rough.

Speaker 9:
[18:55] That's rough.

Speaker 8:
[18:56] Yeah, that is very rough.

Speaker 6:
[18:58] Like Abel Reese's GPA.

Speaker 9:
[19:00] I do think we have found a friend in the audience who has a possible way to redeem the night for the Vikings. I'm going to bring up Alex. Now, Alex, first of all, you're a brave man showing up to a Vikings draft party in a Drake May jersey.

Speaker 8:
[19:12] Wow.

Speaker 9:
[19:13] Thank you for that.

Speaker 4:
[19:14] What could have been.

Speaker 9:
[19:15] What could have been, I know. Hey, hey, he's a Pats fan. He's having a hard enough day already, okay? Leave the man alone. So go ahead and share your take with the audience.

Speaker 10:
[19:27] I actually think this is a great idea, but okay, it's time for the Vikings to redeem the first round, trade Jonathan Grenard to the Patriots for the 31st pick right now, and you can have another shot at it.

Speaker 9:
[19:39] So let me ask you this, why would the Patriots want to trade out of the first round tonight and not have to host a press conference? Any reason? I don't know if anyone thinks of anything. Just think about that. Do you have any idea, like getting a vibe hanging around Vikings fans? Obviously, you're a Pats fan. What type of position do you think the Vikings could target at 31, if you have any idea?

Speaker 10:
[20:03] I think they could probably take any wide receiver on the board. They could go after another D line.

Speaker 3:
[20:11] Okay.

Speaker 9:
[20:12] Few options, few options. If EMW is there at 31, it could get interesting. Thank you, Alex, for coming up. Appreciate you, man.

Speaker 3:
[20:18] Thank you, guys. Leighton and Jason.

Speaker 9:
[20:19] Round of applause for Alex as well.

Speaker 3:
[20:21] Roku fan zone. I love how we turned a hypothetical trade into some ideas. Okay, Dex.

Speaker 5:
[20:29] The Steelers select offensive tackle. Max, is it Iannaccio?

Speaker 7:
[20:33] Iannaccio.

Speaker 5:
[20:34] With the 21st overall pick.

Speaker 7:
[20:37] Yeah. Yeah, the offensive line run.

Speaker 6:
[20:40] Is that six?

Speaker 7:
[20:41] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[20:43] I think that's six alignment.

Speaker 7:
[20:45] Well, it was four or six before. Was there another one that was second?

Speaker 6:
[20:47] Monroe got taken by it.

Speaker 7:
[20:48] Oh, then Monroe.

Speaker 6:
[20:49] Monroe went to the Panthers.

Speaker 7:
[20:52] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, another offensive alignment. So, I mean, really tapping that there. And that was something that was projected with those offensive linemen getting pulled up the board. But again, in that environment, I don't mean to keep going back to it. I don't know why you had to hop in the stream there and do the first interior defensive linemen. But yeah, the run on offensive linemen continues here.

Speaker 6:
[21:15] And for Max, I think Max is maybe the most potential, like body-wise. But he also has some off-field question marks that make me question some of the stuff that happened there at Arizona State. But when you look at just the overall prototypical, if you could build a left tackle, that's who you want. And so you're gonna put him opposite of Troy Fontenot. Troy Fontenot's gonna bump over there. You're gonna put Max on the other side. You're gonna pair him with Zach Fraser. I like what the Steelers did here, bolstering the interior offensive line. But that pick for them might be a headache in a couple years.

Speaker 7:
[21:47] Yeah, I do like the player. You know, I mean, Ian Atchor, newer to football. And for a guy that is as inexperienced as he is, you see a lot of natural ability. He's obviously an awesome athlete. And he has, even though it's a little bit of a, I don't want to call it boxy frame, because, you know, he's just an eyelash under six foot six, but he has really good length as well. It's almost 83 inch wingspan on him. But the movement on the outside, really good athlete. And then I love the way that he plays. You know, it's a guy that wants to bury people. He plays with a real attitude. And sometimes that needs to be tapered back a little bit as well. But a guy with a lot of ability in the in-atch or AJ's boy.

Speaker 4:
[22:27] Are we, Jay, are we outside? So when we started the show, you talked about like about an 18 player first round.

Speaker 3:
[22:34] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[22:35] Are we outside of quality first round picks right now?

Speaker 6:
[22:39] I think there's still probably about four of them left based off of some of the shocks we've had with Banks, with Simpson, right? I think you throw a couple of those guys that no one really thought should be first rounders. I think you're still looking at, we haven't seen, we've only seen one corner come off the board.

Speaker 3:
[22:55] I mean, Thenemen is there.

Speaker 6:
[22:57] And I mean, I can't remember a first round in the last couple of years where it's only been one corner, right? Usually you see at least three to four corners coming off the board in the top 15 picks.

Speaker 4:
[23:06] I sort of told you guys that.

Speaker 3:
[23:07] Yeah, in fairness.

Speaker 4:
[23:09] I sort of did tell you guys what the problems are there.

Speaker 8:
[23:11] You did.

Speaker 6:
[23:12] You did.

Speaker 8:
[23:12] You did.

Speaker 4:
[23:13] But the safety surprised me.

Speaker 7:
[23:14] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you have both those guys out there. That is very interesting. I don't know if I saw any mock where there was only one safety in the top 20, you know, and you did see, of course, Caleb Downs pushed down by Thenemen and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. It's different kinds of games. So it's interesting that neither of those guys so far here yet. I had heard some connections of McNeil-Warren with Philadelphia, and they needed a strong safety and it would have been fun. That's what I was hoping for, honestly, because you would have paired them with Quinn Yom Mitchell. I always like when they they reunite or whatever. But with Mekhi Lemon falling down the board, that the egos, the reason they crushed the draft every year is Roseman doesn't go into it telling his building, oh, we're going to do this tonight. Right. And because of that, you're able to keep to all possibilities. In this one, you have Mekhi Lemon fall further down the board, and if indeed the egos are ultimately going to trade AJ. Brown, boy, what a no-brainer that was to just give up a few picks to move up with Dallas.

Speaker 3:
[24:14] Thor, real quick here, we talked extensively, both you and Jeremiah, about the risk of banks and just the strategic head scratching of the trade that looked like it was there and all the reasons why it doesn't make a lot of sense. Another layer to this is Dylan Thienemann was the most mocked player to the Vikings and seemed to be an interesting fit. McNeil Warren is someone Jay talked about. But can you juxtapose Dylan Thienemann specifically choosing to not draft him and in favor of Caleb Banks? Are they going to regret not just sticking and picking chalk with Dylan Thienemann in your opinion? If that was the other door that was open.

Speaker 7:
[24:58] In my opinion, if an interior defense alignment isn't taken with this pick, and I just seen it so it wasn't, by definition, the Vikings already made a mistake there because they could have gotten the same player at 23 and then we'll see how his career plays out.

Speaker 5:
[25:13] Chargers taking Ed Rusher, Akima Mesadour with the 22nd overall pick.

Speaker 3:
[25:18] Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about Mesadour.

Speaker 7:
[25:20] This is one of the few picks that if the Vikings have made it, I would have been a little bit more upset than I am with the banks. I am not a Mesadour guy. Mesadour, last year when he really starts dominating, he's 24 years old.

Speaker 4:
[25:35] 25 according to the 22.

Speaker 7:
[25:37] Yeah. It's a guy that has medical concerns as well. This past season when he's a 25-year-old going up against a bunch of 19 and 20-year-old offensive tackles in the ACC, you were playing across from one, again, I'll go back to it, one of the most dominant edge rushers I've ever seen in college football. Akeem Mesadour didn't face one double team. He didn't get no chips, nothing like that. It was him just teeing off. And that's what happened. He got some stats there. I hate that pick for the Chargers.

Speaker 6:
[26:09] Yeah. You're trying to find the Khalil Mack replacement in two years, and I don't think this is it.

Speaker 7:
[26:13] No.

Speaker 6:
[26:14] I don't think this is it because I was going to bring up to that point, too.

Speaker 7:
[26:16] I mean, two years, he's almost going to be Khalil Mack's age.

Speaker 6:
[26:19] No kidding. When I was at Nebraska, my freshman year, Nodomik and Sue was there and Jared Crick was there, and Jared Crick had this unbelievable season, and he ended up getting drafted higher than he probably should have because everyone slid to Sue. Bain was the star on the page every week that goes, we can't let this guy beat us.

Speaker 7:
[26:39] 100%.

Speaker 6:
[26:39] So you game plan around that guy, and you make sure you're going to have, like you said, the chips. You're going to beat him up. You're going to slow to him. Well, that allows the other guy to have that type of success. I think he's probably a day two player, maybe even a top of day three. I did not see him going in the first round.

Speaker 7:
[26:53] Same, yeah. On my board, he was somewhere in the third round. You know, and I think top half of the third round, but yeah, I wouldn't have taken Macedora in the second either. There isn't even data that can justify the decision that they just made. Show me the data of a 25 year old late breakout guy with injury concerns, who isn't an elite athlete. It's not an elite frame. And then the one year of big production was, again, cut across from one of the best defenders we see in college football in 20 years.

Speaker 6:
[27:19] This is what we were talking about. This draft makes no sense. It's already starting to make no sense. And we're 23 picks into it.

Speaker 7:
[27:25] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[27:26] Teams are panicking a little bit, in my opinion, because they're going, I don't really want to take this guy. Like, oh, it's a safety or it's this, that or the other thing. People are kind of just throwing stuff at the wall right now and seeing what sticks.

Speaker 5:
[27:36] Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell on Caleb Banks saying, quote, we really felt like we were able to identify a player with a ceiling of a top 10 caliber talent and wanted to add size and youth to that defensive line.

Speaker 7:
[27:49] Yeah, I mean, that's fine. But again, Kevin, explain for us who is having who is going to have had who of the teams that did not select an interior defense alignment up until the 23rd pick. Did you project was going to take Caleb Banks? And if you can't give us that answer, then you need to explain to us why you didn't take the Eagles trade offer to move down and take them in the 23rd slot. And what he says, I'm not even going to argue with that. Like if Caleb Banks didn't have medical concerns, he has top 10 tape if you're just looking at the high end. But he didn't even get to play a bunch in college because the first two years at Louisville wasn't on the field a whole bunch. He was awesome in 2024 for sure. But that's when he suffers the first foot injury, then there's another foot injury, then there's another foot injury. And finally there's a fourth one at the combine. This guy's had multiple foot surgeries here like in the last four or five months. It's an elevated risk profile. And again, even if they're over the moon for him, pushing the issue there, who else is going to take him?

Speaker 3:
[28:49] And that's why there are two tracks to this discussion, which both of which obviously you can poke holes in. But the first track is kind of the checkers of it, which is, is this a good player? Is this a player worth drafting if they are healthy with our pick, et cetera, et cetera? But the chess of it is, could we still get that player in a different slot and get two extra picks in the third or fourth round? And all of it is part of winning the draft process and building rosters. Every team over the course of time gets the same amount of draft resources. How can you better maximize your draft resources and still get good players? And so I 100% agree with poking holes in their logic, now that we've seen the next few picks play out.

Speaker 6:
[29:36] And you draft these guys because you want to be on your team for seven years. Right. You draft first round players because you want them to be the franchise of that position for the next five to seven years. If you're struggling, you're having question marks about a guy coming in with injuries. The league is not, it's very unforgiving on your body. You don't magically get in the league and like, oh, I feel much better when I do things. It gets worse as you go on.

Speaker 5:
[30:04] With the 23rd pick, the Dallas Cowboys select pass rusher Malachi Lawrence.

Speaker 3:
[30:09] That's who you've been talking about for a couple of hours here, Thors.

Speaker 7:
[30:12] Yeah. Good call. There it is. Yeah. And Dallas indeed ended up being interested in Malachi Lawrence. And I'd be interested to hear from Brian Flores what he ended up thinking of Malachi Lawrence. And we'll see about a Jonathan Grenard thing. If they're not going to trade Jonathan Grenard this weekend, then that may be not as far as Malachi Lawrence goes. But late riser Malachi Lawrence, this is your sort of body beautiful type edge rusher in this class. It's exactly what you look for. It's a sort of Brian Flores archetype. You have the explosive athletic testing there. He was really good during the pre-drop process as well. And he has the havoc numbers. Late in the career, he started to ascend a bit. Some people are going to be a little bit surprised about this because this was a pretty good edge class. But I do think that you can justify him right around here. He was a late for item 29 on my board. I'm not going to argue with this one too much.

Speaker 4:
[31:04] So back to the Vikings picked up. Here's what I don't get. The medical records.

Speaker 3:
[31:13] Kevin O'Connell just said, by the way, they have high confidence in the medicals and the work that they've done.

Speaker 4:
[31:20] Yeah. And a couple of years ago, he said that they loved their staff and then they fired a guy from it. But here's what I don't get. Like, you don't have to be very intelligent to look at the medicals and dismiss people automatically off of that.

Speaker 6:
[31:36] Happens every time.

Speaker 4:
[31:37] But I mean, you should. And if, God bless some team, if they take a projected first round pick, but he had medical issues in the third round and that guy pans out and he ends up in Canton, hats off to him. But you don't tempt fate.

Speaker 5:
[31:50] KOC also saying about Banks that, quote, at the position, his size, his movement skills, his violence, the type of the game, that's the type of game that we think he can play. Snap in and snap out is something we're really excited about.

Speaker 4:
[32:03] Yeah, and that's great, but he's going to play in a walking boot. Unless the Vikings have designed a walking boot.

Speaker 5:
[32:08] Is it a weapon?

Speaker 4:
[32:08] Well, maybe they can.

Speaker 7:
[32:10] Who is it with the Seahawks? And then they gave them two size smaller, was it Smith and Jigba?

Speaker 6:
[32:14] Yeah, Smith and Jigba. They were like, you were just wearing two bigger shoes.

Speaker 7:
[32:16] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[32:17] Maybe that's his problem.

Speaker 3:
[32:18] He's just wearing two bigger cleats.

Speaker 7:
[32:19] I think they're technically...

Speaker 5:
[32:22] With the 24th pick, the Browns are taking wide receiver Casey Concepcion.

Speaker 7:
[32:25] Oh, nice. Man, the Browns are actually...

Speaker 4:
[32:30] Don't say it.

Speaker 6:
[32:31] The Browns will always...

Speaker 7:
[32:33] Listen, Sonny Weaver Jr. I don't know who's going to throw him the ball next year, Concepcion. Maybe a year for now, it's going to be Arch Manning there in Cleveland. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Speaker 4:
[32:46] No, I said Arch Manning's not going there.

Speaker 7:
[32:48] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[32:49] Do you think the Manning family would allow one of their offspring anywhere near Cleveland?

Speaker 7:
[32:55] If the Browns can convince Nick Saban to be the head coach here.

Speaker 4:
[32:59] You know what? You know what? Hot take. Nick Saban, completely overrated national football league coach. He's not good. Thank you.

Speaker 7:
[33:06] Well, yeah, national football league, for sure.

Speaker 4:
[33:08] Yeah, so he's not good. But I mean, with the Dolphins, ugh.

Speaker 7:
[33:12] Yeah, returning to the Banks thing, again, if there wasn't medical things, I would like to pick. I absolutely would. But I want to be very clear about this. This selection is already bad process. And this is outside of if Caleb Banks makes six, seven Pro Bowls or it's outside of if his career ends in a year and a half because he gets medically ruled out. It is bad process to take a player at 18 that you could have gotten at 23, right? And you could have had two more drafts, you could have had a fourth round pick and whatever else they got. And we don't know what other offers were there. But we also know last year when they took Donovan Jackson, the Vikings, they would have had the 13th pick in this draft had they taken the trade down in that one, right? But it's a team that likes to sit there with their biggest need. They talked a lot about BPA, you know, here the last couple months. But they did what they always do, which is they decide what their biggest need is in advance and then they're going to stick and pick even if that means reaching way up a round on a guy or a half of a round on a guy. And if an interior defense alignment or two had been taken in between, then you could be like, oh man, actually, it was three dimensional chess. They knew that that run was coming and oh boy, tricky Rob B. He got right in front of it, right? That didn't happen. It wasn't projected to happen. Who would have thought it would have happened? So again, if you had an offer to move down to 23, I want them to explain to us which team was going to take Kahlef Banks at 1920, 21 or 22. I want the identity of a team or I want them to explain why they didn't take that offer.

Speaker 3:
[34:49] Yeah, no, these are these are fair process criticisms. I think the good news is banks there.

Speaker 7:
[34:55] I'm not arguing against banks and banks could be awesome. I'm arguing that it is bad process irregardless because you just burn two draft picks that you could have had. What you're doing is you're paying the guy 18 slot money as opposed to 23rd.

Speaker 6:
[35:10] Which is a big difference.

Speaker 7:
[35:11] Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 6:
[35:12] When you're talking multi-millions of dollars because once you start hitting 18 down to 20, it plummets. Like the guaranteed money starts plummeting once you get into the 20s.

Speaker 5:
[35:20] We read the Schefter thing about what teams sent about Caleb Banks. Do we say this yet?

Speaker 3:
[35:25] No, I don't think so.

Speaker 5:
[35:26] Okay, so this was about a half hour ago.

Speaker 3:
[35:29] Oh, the letter.

Speaker 5:
[35:30] About the letter.

Speaker 3:
[35:30] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[35:32] By early June.

Speaker 7:
[35:33] You must have been peeing.

Speaker 3:
[35:37] By the way, designated bathroom break if anyone needs it right now. Well, so thank you guys for hanging out with us. Now, two and a half hours into the extravaganza here, the 2026 Purple Daily Draft Party, presented by Standard Heating and Air Conditioning on the Roku stage at Mystic Lake. Shout out to Victory Tire and Auto and Grandpa's Barbecue, who's auctioning off memorabilia for charity tonight. We are giving some things away also with the QR codes that are flashing up on the screen in-house and on YouTube. For instance, you can win a Roku Pro Series, a 75-inch TV and a 75-inch wall mount valued around $1,800. Then Standard Heating and Air Conditioning also putting together a package that includes a free HVAC tune-up, a Honeywell 16 Pro Smart Thermostat, Vikings Jersey and a Yeti Water Bottle as well. Scan the QR code or enter at skornorth.com/win. Dex, a little more information on that Grandpa's Barbecue Auction here before we dive back into the last few picks of the very speedy, 2026.

Speaker 6:
[36:47] I love that this is going to be done before 10.30.

Speaker 3:
[36:50] That's awesome.

Speaker 5:
[36:50] You can still bid to win some Minnesota Vikings jerseys, thanks to Grandpa's Barbecue, that they're looking to raise money for Xeroderma pigmatosum, which is a rare genetic condition in which the body cannot repair damage from UV light. Your bid helps provide life-saving medical care, specialized protective equipment, clinical research and so much more, so help support the XP Family Support Group as they work toward their goal of raising over $100,000 for a cause that matters. To learn more about their cause, you need to help them and support. Be sure to include Purple Daily in the comment section. Scan that QR code for people in-house and watching on the YouTube channel, and you can bid to win Minnesota Vikings jerseys thanks to Grandpa's Barbecue.

Speaker 4:
[37:25] So for the panel, we started the night with the expectation that this was going to be an odd draft because we knew the topic, but after that it was very unclear.