Speaker 1: You know, super Bowl has to be the number one
Speaker 1: thing that you think about when you come to work
Speaker 1: every day for sure, no doubt. And so to be
Speaker 1: around a big umbrella of those guys and learn from
Speaker 1: those guys, what better way to do that? You know?
Speaker 1: For me, performance is all encompassing. It's not just weight room,
Speaker 1: it's nutrition, it's all of it. And so for me,
Speaker 1: like I'm very excited about being able to work with
Speaker 1: these guys. This is the Minnesota Vikings Podcast, Episode number
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty five is the final one of
Speaker 1: this offseason before training camp. I'm your host, Tatum Everett.
Speaker 1: We've got producer Jay Nelson here today, but we also
Speaker 1: have Gabe Henderson here after a few weeks hiatus. How's
Speaker 1: it going? It's going, feel reston. I feel like a
Speaker 1: grown up about a house, figured out how to fix
Speaker 1: the garage, figured out how to break a TV, and
Speaker 1: then figured out how to make it back to work
Speaker 1: in one piece. So everything is good. Wow, I think
Speaker 1: you strategically broke the TV so you could get a
Speaker 1: bigger one. Oh so you didn't actually fix it, you
Speaker 1: bought a bigger one. Yeah, that was a good guess
Speaker 1: on my end. I understand that mentality. Yeah, this one fell. No,
Speaker 1: we have to get the eighty four. Yeah, I know Julia,
Speaker 1: she's not Damn she knew. Oh she told me to
Speaker 1: get it. Oh there you go. See that's another story
Speaker 1: for another day. But yeah, we basically figured out a
Speaker 1: way to put some stuff in the house in areas
Speaker 1: that she didn't get mad. So I've key to happiness.
Speaker 1: I've visited the house every night and I come to
Speaker 1: work every day she lives there. Yeah, no, I like that.
Speaker 1: I might have to start using that in my house.
Speaker 1: Hey like that. That's the thing for the two of you.
Speaker 1: You now have new dwellings that you get to kind
Speaker 1: of figure out whose room is, who's who gets to
Speaker 1: you know, decorate and deal with everything else. And I
Speaker 1: know any females that are listening right now can totally
Speaker 1: relate to this one. I said, you can have a
Speaker 1: room to put all of your sports stuff, all of
Speaker 1: your you know, video game nerdy kind of things like
Speaker 1: keep it all collectibles, keep it all in one room.
Speaker 1: As long as I get the bigger closet, maybe another closet,
Speaker 1: maybe an extra closet, and you know all that stuff. Man,
Speaker 1: that's I respect that from Josh, because like Julia knows,
Speaker 1: I get the bigger closet, but she gets everything goes
Speaker 1: like I have the most. I have been most closed.
Speaker 1: So funny anybody that she's ever met. So it's my closet,
Speaker 1: her house. I am still living out of a wardrobe box.
Speaker 1: We don't have enough things to hold the clothes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's an older home. See, I'm on
Speaker 1: the flip side. I've been in that house now for
Speaker 1: fifteen years, and I'm at the we need to purge.
Speaker 1: We got to get rid of a life. I mean,
Speaker 1: we really try to. But I think the biggest, the
Speaker 1: biggest thing I've noticed is so I've been here a year, right,
Speaker 1: Josh has been here about two and a half years.
Speaker 1: We have like eight pairs of snowshoes. We have an
Speaker 1: entire clothing rack of snow jackets in the basement, and
Speaker 1: literally the closet in the basement is probably now seventy
Speaker 1: five percent winter clothes. We are those people. It's get
Speaker 1: into that time of year though. Don't tell me that
Speaker 1: I just put them all away. Please don't tell me
Speaker 1: that it's July. No, no, no, no, no, It's like
Speaker 1: out there camp starting camp is starting, the weather is
Speaker 1: going to start turning at least we're hoping for. Oh
Speaker 1: it's gonna be so hot at camp though, it really well,
Speaker 1: welcome to camp in Minnesota. You know that happens every year.
Speaker 1: I enjoy that. I enjoyed like training camp, being out
Speaker 1: there and getting a sweat on, seeing the fans, seeing
Speaker 1: everything happen, Like I look forward to that. It really
Speaker 1: does kind of ring it all together because we've been
Speaker 1: waiting for this for so long. I feel like we
Speaker 1: have because you think, well, I guess maybe because it's
Speaker 1: just been talking season for so long and I'm really
Speaker 1: tired of talking season. Yeah. It's just like when training
Speaker 1: camp comes, it's just like a whirlwind of stuff. So
Speaker 1: like I look forward to like the fourth of July,
Speaker 1: and then after the week of the fourth of July,
Speaker 1: it's just like can training camp coming like a month
Speaker 1: and set of two weeks. So like, now that we're
Speaker 1: in it, it's like it is what it is, no
Speaker 1: turning back. But like training camp, to your point, it
Speaker 1: is arguably the most fun time of the year. Everyone
Speaker 1: is back in business. We're all I mean, we got
Speaker 1: fans back here. I mean, especially after two years ago
Speaker 1: and I having fans and having fans for the first
Speaker 1: time back last year, but I feel like we'll be
Speaker 1: closer to one hundred percent this year. Have that energy.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of excavation around training camp this year,
Speaker 1: so having all of that put together into a two
Speaker 1: or three week period, I think that the level of
Speaker 1: excitement does go up when you think about it from
Speaker 1: that perspective. Yeah, And the schedule is also located on
Speaker 1: vikings dot com backslash training Camp because sometimes even I
Speaker 1: have to go to that website to kind of figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's this day, when's the night practice, what's the theme
Speaker 1: this day. It's a great tool to use and buy
Speaker 1: your tickets because Ascape said, there's gonna be so many
Speaker 1: opportunities to watch this team. It's an exciting time. Autographs return,
Speaker 1: you know, that's a big draw. That's a huge deal,
Speaker 1: and I know that that's something that for years and
Speaker 1: years and years everyone always look forward to. In man
Speaker 1: Cato when he came here, we were doing autograph lines
Speaker 1: as well. Again, COVID changed everything for the last kind
Speaker 1: of couple of years, and they were trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what they were going to do in that realm.
Speaker 1: But that is one of the things that I also know,
Speaker 1: not only professionally, but personally. I would hear from people saying,
Speaker 1: you are they doing autographs this year? It's a big deal,
Speaker 1: and it's something fun because it's that that one personal
Speaker 1: moment they might get with a player that might stick
Speaker 1: with them for the rest of their lives. And I
Speaker 1: think especially when you see kids in those lines and
Speaker 1: just kind of the smiles on their face looking for
Speaker 1: those autographs, it's a huge deal. So it's great to
Speaker 1: see it coming back. And I know that they're they're
Speaker 1: working really hard to get people as much access as
Speaker 1: they can, and I think the autograph line is something
Speaker 1: that's going to be a huge, huge fun thing for
Speaker 1: people to be a part of it. I feel like
Speaker 1: this might be a stupid question, but the number one
Speaker 1: name out there that that fans are going to get
Speaker 1: signed things as JJ right, Yeah, Jay Nelson, Yeah took
Speaker 1: the fact is I mean Justice has never done that before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so fans for the first time a training camp.
Speaker 1: Can you know anyone drafted from twenty twenty on, this
Speaker 1: is this is it? This is They haven't really interacted
Speaker 1: with them necessarily like this in this capacity. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's something that you know, they do a really good
Speaker 1: job in the planning stages of all this stuff, getting
Speaker 1: everything organized as much as possible and just trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that they have, you know, kind of the
Speaker 1: adequate amount of people and time and everything allotted for it.
Speaker 1: So if they're doing it in a similar fashion as
Speaker 1: previous years, that'll be something fun. And again, i mean
Speaker 1: a guy like that, where else do you typically get
Speaker 1: access to him? You don't, And so for someone like him,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be fun for him, especially with the kids.
Speaker 1: I mean, there'll be so many eighteen jerseys. Yeah, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: so it'll be it'll be fun to see that dynamic,
Speaker 1: you know when that happens, And I think there's just
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of people that are gonna be
Speaker 1: really excited to be able to have that personal moment
Speaker 1: with players this year. I think on top of that,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking of guys like the Cam Dancelers of
Speaker 1: the world or the Patrick Peterson's of the world that
Speaker 1: just got here the last two years, and they're just like, dude,
Speaker 1: we get a chance to be our own fans. Also,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking of Patrick Peterson in particular. Of course,
Speaker 1: we know the story of being Arizona and then last
Speaker 1: year things of being weird. So I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people understand that he's going to be a future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer and now he's on our team, so
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, we get a chance to see JJ,
Speaker 1: but we also get a chance to see a future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer in Patrick Peterson that we've been watching
Speaker 1: for for years and years. So I think just from
Speaker 1: kids to twenty five or thirty year olds or grown men,
Speaker 1: and they're going to be excited to see grown women. Also,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be excited to see all these players that
Speaker 1: are going to be here. So it's gonna be fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's fun for the entire family. Well, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to training Cam talk a little about that
Speaker 1: in just a second. But this episode does have a
Speaker 1: really cool guest that we're having. We're really kind of
Speaker 1: putting a bow and wrapping up our big series with
Speaker 1: coaching staff interviews of guys maybe that you haven't really
Speaker 1: heard too much from, especially since they're new to the staff.
Speaker 1: But our one today is actually another carryover from the
Speaker 1: last couple of seasons. It is assistant director of Player
Speaker 1: Performance Derek Keys, and really there's rarely a guy who
Speaker 1: knows the players better than Derek. He's always working with them,
Speaker 1: working on their performance as far as like you know,
Speaker 1: if you listen to last week's podcast with Tyler Williams,
Speaker 1: it's their weight training, it's their overall health. And so
Speaker 1: I thought he was a really really interesting interview. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know he has the title of Assistant Director of
Speaker 1: Player Performance, but a lot of people don't understand that
Speaker 1: he's a he's a life coach. Also, these players really
Speaker 1: they were a magnet towards him because of the energy
Speaker 1: he brings. And I know he spends probably ninety percent
Speaker 1: of his time in the weight room, but the majority
Speaker 1: of his time is spent teaching these guys how to
Speaker 1: be grown in and be humans at life. So I
Speaker 1: think you need that like you need that in factor
Speaker 1: when it comes to a coach, because a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys, with their millionaires they come in the world
Speaker 1: is in their hands. You have to have somebody there,
Speaker 1: especially in the way room, that balances those guys out.
Speaker 1: And we know players spend most of their time in
Speaker 1: the way room. Ninety percent of their time is spent
Speaker 1: with the training staff and the weight training staff. The
Speaker 1: other ten percent or five percent spent on the field
Speaker 1: and other five percent spent in the meeting room. So
Speaker 1: it's always great talking to him, especially a guy like
Speaker 1: this with the resume. He was in Cleveland for I
Speaker 1: think eight years. I think he did some time in
Speaker 1: San Francisco. He has a long history of a track
Speaker 1: record of understanding how to connect the players and getting
Speaker 1: the most out of them. So hopefully that will ultimately
Speaker 1: turn into a super Bowl or at least a deep
Speaker 1: playoff run for this Vikings team, and looking forward to
Speaker 1: talking to him. I think the thing about Keys is
Speaker 1: that if you really think about the personnelity these guys
Speaker 1: work with, Yeah, they do their off season work outside
Speaker 1: of here with their own trainers and those kind of people.
Speaker 1: Keys and those guys are basically the people that make
Speaker 1: sure that the foundation is solid with these guys on
Speaker 1: a week to week basis throughout the season, let alone
Speaker 1: for the off season is setting their kind of their
Speaker 1: regiment of what they want them to be able to do.
Speaker 1: But more than that, you know, given the discussion we
Speaker 1: had last week, you're trying to make sure that you
Speaker 1: triage as much injuries as you can, and the best
Speaker 1: way to do that is to prevent it on the
Speaker 1: front end, and that is where guys like Derek Keys
Speaker 1: and his group, that is what they're doing on a
Speaker 1: weekly basis, is not only trying to work out the
Speaker 1: kinks and make sure that they're staying healthy during the season,
Speaker 1: but they're also trying to make sure that they're preventing
Speaker 1: as many injuries as possible by working on certain muscle
Speaker 1: groups and whether it's physically or even mentally, getting them
Speaker 1: in the right headspace week to week. So a guy
Speaker 1: like Derek Keys is doing more than just making sure
Speaker 1: guys lifting the weights that he needs to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you want to check out the interview with
Speaker 1: Tyler or Williams from last week, he came here from
Speaker 1: the Rams. It's a good listen to right before you
Speaker 1: listen to this one as well. So I would definitely
Speaker 1: check that one out because I think they kind of
Speaker 1: go hand in hand, which is really kind of cool.
Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in just a second. The
Speaker 1: countdown is on. Though training camp is just days away,
Speaker 1: the players are wrapping up their final days off before camp.
Speaker 1: The rookies and quarterbacks report on Sunday, Meanwhile, Vets arrive
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, just ahead of the first training camp practice
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. And obviously, as we talked about earlier, the
Speaker 1: first time fans can come out is Saturday for the
Speaker 1: Back Together Day. So this show, just like every other
Speaker 1: sports media outlet, has been talking season. We've already kind
Speaker 1: of you know, talked about that actually a little bit
Speaker 1: as well. Seven months, everything that's been going on in
Speaker 1: the storyline. Yes, Juno, Yes, the storylines have been just
Speaker 1: dissected every which way. So I thought that maybe as
Speaker 1: we head into training camp, instead of talking about that,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about maybe our most overlooked or underrated training
Speaker 1: camp storyline. And so, Gabe, I'm going to pass the
Speaker 1: mic to you. What do you think's the most overlook
Speaker 1: storyline of camp. Oh, it's got to be our outside linebackers. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about the Madden ratings. Everybody's talking about
Speaker 1: the Madden ratings. This guy is doing this, or this
Speaker 1: guy has his number, the Neil Hunter nor Zadarius Smith.
Speaker 1: We're in the top ten Madden ratings when it came
Speaker 1: to defensive end slash outside linebackers. We're talking about one
Speaker 1: hundred and five sacks between these two guys that were
Speaker 1: drafted both in the twenty fifteen NFL Draft. So when
Speaker 1: you look at just those numbers a loan the Neil
Speaker 1: Hunter leads his draft class in sacks with sixty. Dadarius
Speaker 1: Smith it's fifth in that twenty fifteen draft class with
Speaker 1: forty four and a half. I haven't even brought up
Speaker 1: dj Wanham, who has eleven sacks and has a budding career.
Speaker 1: And then you've got Patrick Jones Jenarius Robinson, we haven't
Speaker 1: seen him play. Just the depth and the talent alone
Speaker 1: at that position. Nobody's talking about it. And it's like, dude, yeah,
Speaker 1: we get it, Kurk and JJ and Dalvin and all
Speaker 1: these offense right, but like this outside linebacker group has
Speaker 1: has a chance to be the best outside linebacker group
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Like, you got two all Pro outside
Speaker 1: linebackers literally sitting there, healthy, probably as healthy as they've
Speaker 1: ever been in their life, ready to go attack Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers on Week one. So that needs to be a
Speaker 1: topic of discussion closer to training camp, as we as
Speaker 1: we get closer to how this thing is going to
Speaker 1: work out for this Vikings team, and nobody's talking about it.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's probably like a national offing, right,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like maybe here in Minnesota we're well
Speaker 1: aware of what's going on there, and so let it
Speaker 1: be a secret to everyone else at this point, and
Speaker 1: like rightfully so right because people are like, well, these
Speaker 1: guys haven't been healthy the past couple of years, but still,
Speaker 1: like dude, we got two like legit outside linebackers that
Speaker 1: a lot of opposing tackles are going to be scared of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're well aware of the potential. That's the thing, Like
Speaker 1: we've seen, We've seen what they can do. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: question is that they know elephant the room is can
Speaker 1: they stay healthy? And I think that again goes back
Speaker 1: to whether it was Tyler last week or Keys this week,
Speaker 1: Like that is their job is to make sure that
Speaker 1: these two ridiculous specimens can stay on the field and
Speaker 1: absolutely recav it because if they can, it's going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun to watch. Yeah. No, that
Speaker 1: was a good one, Gabe, Jay, can you what you're
Speaker 1: going to give us? I'm essentially taking that exact same line,
Speaker 1: but I'm going from the outside to the inside. So
Speaker 1: for me, it's kind of weird, you know, the stack
Speaker 1: he's getting thrown around. If the Vikings hadn't let up
Speaker 1: scores in the final two minutes of the half and
Speaker 1: the end of the game, they'd be fifteen and two
Speaker 1: last year exactly. I think one of those areas, though,
Speaker 1: that is most intriguing to me, is the middle linebackers
Speaker 1: of this three or four defense and the change in
Speaker 1: the Donetel defense. You have Eric Kendricks, who we all
Speaker 1: know what he can do. There's a lot of excitement
Speaker 1: around Jordan Hicks as well coming in as assigning. Anthony
Speaker 1: Barr has gone at this point, then he's still out
Speaker 1: there as a free agent. But in that PFF ranked
Speaker 1: our inside linebackers as the number five group in the
Speaker 1: entire league, behind the Niners, Cults, Saints, and Packers. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of a cool thing to look at and say,
Speaker 1: you have two proven veterans here that everyone knows, but
Speaker 1: then what's behind them. We have a bunch of people
Speaker 1: that have some to little experience, and so what were
Speaker 1: to happen if these guys got injured or we're out
Speaker 1: In some facet, you're looking at Troy Dye, Ryan Connolly,
Speaker 1: Blake Lynch Chess, are at William Kenweku and rookie Brian Assimoa.
Speaker 1: Those are who are behind those two guys. So and
Speaker 1: for me in camp, I want to see which group
Speaker 1: of those people jump out, not only as kind of
Speaker 1: the fill in or at least the people that are
Speaker 1: going to spell We kind of look at Troy Dye
Speaker 1: or Blake Lynch, they and even chess are at they
Speaker 1: had some run last year, But who's going to be
Speaker 1: that player that's going to step up and solidify themselves
Speaker 1: as the third metal linebacker let alone which ones of
Speaker 1: these guys are going to make the team special teams
Speaker 1: wise and be a contributor. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: I think expectations on a guy like Brian Assimoa as
Speaker 1: a day. I mean a lot of people picked him
Speaker 1: as they're like stand out at rookie camp and mini camp.
Speaker 1: But besides that, you're right though, no one's really talking
Speaker 1: about it besides his potential there and that's just it
Speaker 1: as you're looking at the rookie, but you've got your
Speaker 1: Troy Die, Connolly, Lynch sir At who have equity, but
Speaker 1: they weren't with this defensive coaching staff. So again I'm
Speaker 1: intrigued during camp to see what happens with this group
Speaker 1: if the outside guys you know, can jump up and
Speaker 1: do what they're supposed to do, and you want to
Speaker 1: watch that. I think that entire four of the three
Speaker 1: four defense is what I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are gonna be watching to see what happens because we
Speaker 1: think we know what that starting group is, but who's
Speaker 1: in the backup roles that are really going to jump out? Now, Jay,
Speaker 1: you met a good point equity like they have, so
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say mileage, but they have so much experience
Speaker 1: behind Eric Kendrickson and Jordan Hickson and speaking of that
Speaker 1: a guy and Brian Asamoa, that only forces him to
Speaker 1: get better. So even if he doesn't start, he's going
Speaker 1: to be learning from guys who've already seen it and
Speaker 1: from different defenses, from different offenses. So I think that
Speaker 1: that only makes that group better. And if you have,
Speaker 1: you know, a solid interior defensive line those guys, it
Speaker 1: makes their job a lot easier. This linebacker, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a really good point. This linebacker unit, with all
Speaker 1: that experience, you can only expect him to make another step.
Speaker 1: All those guys in their careers, especially like a Blake
Speaker 1: Lynch But that's the thing that you see with these
Speaker 1: guys is you have clear cut starters in Kendricks and Hicks.
Speaker 1: The other guys have come in, they've all had potential.
Speaker 1: You know, they've in college they were the best of
Speaker 1: their group, but nobody has really jumped up to really
Speaker 1: take that mantle or when they're out there flash when
Speaker 1: they're playing that linebacker position. So that's the thing is
Speaker 1: who's going to take the next step? And if you know,
Speaker 1: maybe Brian Asamoa has that physical talent for him, it's
Speaker 1: going to be trying to catch up mentally to the
Speaker 1: speed of the game. If he can take that next
Speaker 1: level jump, he's going to leap frog all of these
Speaker 1: guys that have this equity, which is, you know, something
Speaker 1: we're going to be excited about as fans. At the
Speaker 1: same point, if he's still kind of trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out, especially during camp, let alone the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season of his first NFL season, which one of
Speaker 1: those kind of veteran backups is going to be the
Speaker 1: one that really helps during camp, That's what I'm curious about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm bringing up those guys. It's kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: storyline because some of them are obviously used to coach
Speaker 1: them are some of them are used their college coaches,
Speaker 1: and now they have at Dontel who is very well
Speaker 1: known as being a teacher, and you're not in this
Speaker 1: industry for as long as he has. If you're not
Speaker 1: connecting with players adapting to their new generational learning styles,
Speaker 1: I guess you could say a fancy word for that,
Speaker 1: but I think that's an exciting group for sure. I'm
Speaker 1: actually going to go to the other side of the
Speaker 1: ball for my over looked underrated training camp storyline because
Speaker 1: I do feel like the amount of questions and this
Speaker 1: whole entire team or they're obviously probably the most than
Speaker 1: we've ever seen in recent years, just because of the
Speaker 1: new coaching staff. But I think we all can agree
Speaker 1: we will see the Vikings pass the ball more. If
Speaker 1: you look at the Rams last season, they only ran
Speaker 1: the ball forty percent of the time. But you've got
Speaker 1: a guy like Dalvin Cook now, And so I'm going
Speaker 1: to go to the running back room because I think
Speaker 1: more than anything, I'm interested to see what will this
Speaker 1: coaching staff do with the run game. After you know,
Speaker 1: the expectation for this team is for it to really
Speaker 1: kind of be the bell Cow the last three four seasons.
Speaker 1: So my question, what's the running game look like. Dalvin
Speaker 1: Cook obviously the starter, You've got Alexander Madison back there.
Speaker 1: But I think for me, the other two names that
Speaker 1: are interesting that are kind of hanging out there are
Speaker 1: Canai Wongwu and Ty Chandler. And you know, two recent
Speaker 1: draft picks. You gotta think they have a fighting chance
Speaker 1: on the roster. And plus Canay led the league in
Speaker 1: kick return touchdowns last season, so he's really carved a
Speaker 1: space out in special teams. So I'm I'm ready to
Speaker 1: see what they do with him. But what is Alexander
Speaker 1: Madison going to do this season? I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: contract year for this guy. Dalvin Cook obviously has had
Speaker 1: health issues, so it's always good to have something in
Speaker 1: the cupboard just in case he does get injured. But
Speaker 1: when you see all these names, I mean, it's the
Speaker 1: potential as there. I mean, you want to see it.
Speaker 1: I mean Ti Chandler was great in college. Mean, he's
Speaker 1: a very versatile player. He can catch the ball in
Speaker 1: the backfield, he's got speed, he has special team talent,
Speaker 1: so I mean, you know, he was a volunteer for
Speaker 1: Way longer just saying what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 1: But he's from Nashville actually, so I appreciate that. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think for me that's pretty much what's
Speaker 1: most overlooked because we talk so much about Kirk and
Speaker 1: this wide receiver room and oh it's the offensive line,
Speaker 1: like who's at right guard blah blah blah. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: this running back room is an interesting mix of guys
Speaker 1: because then you also got t J. Hamm. What are
Speaker 1: they going to do with a fullback? It's a running
Speaker 1: back battle for sure this year. Like for that number
Speaker 1: two spot, like that, that is an Alexander Madison spot.
Speaker 1: As much as I love the guy, like you got
Speaker 1: kna wangu here for a reason, you dropt a running
Speaker 1: back in the fifth round for a reason, he has
Speaker 1: to show up and show out. And I feel like
Speaker 1: special teams is going to be away for him to
Speaker 1: show up and show out. Usually in this Zimmer led team,
Speaker 1: the backup running back has never had to play special
Speaker 1: teams outside of kickoff return. So who's going to se
Speaker 1: to five place on the special teams unit. If that's
Speaker 1: Alexander Madison, he has a better chance of being the backup.
Speaker 1: Ifs Cane, he has a better chance of being the backup.
Speaker 1: And I think this offense is built around the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Now if around Kirks or there's going to be more
Speaker 1: pressure on Kirk. So honestly, I think that ultimately helps
Speaker 1: Tyler and Derek Keys because we won't see Dalvin having
Speaker 1: thirty carries a game and running ISOs up the middle
Speaker 1: and being one on one with a linebacker. He's going
Speaker 1: to be out in space where when he catches the
Speaker 1: ball he can either get hit or he can run
Speaker 1: out of bound. So that backup running back position it's
Speaker 1: up for grabs right now. So this is an underrated
Speaker 1: running back room because Curtis mockins he's got a really
Speaker 1: good problem to have. He's got a position battle, and
Speaker 1: that's what you want as a position coach and or
Speaker 1: a head coach. So you look at that and say,
Speaker 1: all right, Dalvin, you're the guy who's going to step
Speaker 1: up for me. It's the question of the Vikings have
Speaker 1: been a smash mouth running back team for basically my
Speaker 1: entire life. Chance Oh, it feels like it every morning
Speaker 1: when I wake up last year, like twenty years. But
Speaker 1: that's the thing. As the Vikings have been known as
Speaker 1: the kind of this smash mouth running back team, and
Speaker 1: so now the attitude of shifting it towards the new
Speaker 1: age NFL style of quarterback play and getting people out
Speaker 1: in space. If that's what we're going to do like
Speaker 1: they did with the Rams, it's exciting for a lot
Speaker 1: of people. But if you think about when Alexander Madison
Speaker 1: was drafted, you had Delvin who was kind of your
Speaker 1: shifty back, and Alexander was seen as kind of this
Speaker 1: more bruising guy who could be the short yardage guy
Speaker 1: and possibly hurtle a guy in space if he gets
Speaker 1: a chance. I think now if you look at of
Speaker 1: the rest of them, Delvin is tough and he will
Speaker 1: get those kind of yards, but he's not seen as
Speaker 1: the guy who's going to be able to take that
Speaker 1: kind of punishment. Typically. You know, he's gotten hurt over
Speaker 1: the last few years. He's had those kind of issues.
Speaker 1: Alexander's had to step in. But if you look at
Speaker 1: the guys behind him, like you said, between ty Chandler
Speaker 1: and Knee, those guys tend to be more shifty guys
Speaker 1: that you would think that they're not going to be
Speaker 1: potentially having to smash through and get three yards on
Speaker 1: a third and two situation. What does this offense look like?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be the thing of getting everyone
Speaker 1: out in space? And if it is, then Alexander's kind
Speaker 1: of a little bit stylistically, a little bit of an
Speaker 1: odd man out in the typical frame of everybody else
Speaker 1: is more of your shifty in space guy. But do
Speaker 1: you need that juxtaposition when you have shortyarded situations like
Speaker 1: you mentioned exactly. So that's the question with these guys,
Speaker 1: and especially with Alexander, with it being a contract year
Speaker 1: for him. We've always we've tended to have these dynamic
Speaker 1: running back kind of abilities where you have one guy
Speaker 1: who's a smash mouth and one guy who's been the shifty.
Speaker 1: Delvin is so good you don't want to not have
Speaker 1: him on the field. So he's in the debate of
Speaker 1: would you rather have Adrian his prime or Delvin. A
Speaker 1: lot of people put point at Delvin because he's more versatile,
Speaker 1: you can catch out of the backfield, he can do
Speaker 1: what he does, can block exactly. So with all of
Speaker 1: these different elements, that is why this is intriguing as
Speaker 1: a camp piece, is because Alexander's in the last year
Speaker 1: of his deal. What's his future going to be not
Speaker 1: only with us or potentially elsewhere if he doesn't resign
Speaker 1: with us, Because what is his role in this offense?
Speaker 1: So if we do you switch it to more of
Speaker 1: a shifty, twitchy offense, you know, Alexander's either got to
Speaker 1: fit in that mold or you know, the everybody else
Speaker 1: is going to get more playing time. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a it's a huge thing to pay attention to here
Speaker 1: in camp. Also, they have all cute kids in that
Speaker 1: that room. Alex As a new dad, Cane as a
Speaker 1: new dad, motivation, Larry CJ's Hams, got his little unit. Yep,
Speaker 1: there you go like that. I just I'm looking at
Speaker 1: Vikings dot Com. I didn't know Dalvin was only twenty six,
Speaker 1: Like he's in his prime right now. Like I don't
Speaker 1: whoa that? Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, I mean if
Speaker 1: we all we all felt we all felt that. But
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at But when you think of like
Speaker 1: a longevity of like a running backs career, like what
Speaker 1: you get more than three years, you're good. You hit
Speaker 1: twenty nine and you're seen as kind of a rat,
Speaker 1: a huge you know, aging vat at that point, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. That's why I'm so excited about Dalvin this year, right,
Speaker 1: because like this should be his best year of football,
Speaker 1: Like he's in his best year. If you look at
Speaker 1: the lungs, every ever running back, when you know if
Speaker 1: they had a ten to twelve year career, year six
Speaker 1: or year seven is when they have like their peak years.
Speaker 1: So I think Vikings fans should be excited about that.
Speaker 1: And that is another point of this room is very
Speaker 1: overlooked because you have a running back that is in
Speaker 1: his prime and then you have some young guys behind
Speaker 1: him that are budding in their career starting to trend upwards.
Speaker 1: And they got a running back of top five running
Speaker 1: back in the NFL to learn from. So exciting times. Well,
Speaker 1: one guy who knows all those guys and works extremely
Speaker 1: close with all of them is Assistant director of Player Performance,
Speaker 1: Derek Keys, and he is our MVP guest this week,
Speaker 1: all right now joining the Minnesota Vikings podcast. A really
Speaker 1: good friend of the show, really good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: really good friend of this Minnesota Vikings team, mister Derek Keys,
Speaker 1: who just got a promotion to Assistant director of Player Performance.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, my man. He appreciate you. Appreciate you,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. So first things first, you got
Speaker 1: this promotion, what what does that consist of? Because you've
Speaker 1: been here the past few years, I've seen you in
Speaker 1: the weight room. We know there's there's more than just
Speaker 1: a strength and conditioning coach. But now with this new
Speaker 1: title and this new uh add of responsibility, what does
Speaker 1: that look like enhancing this team. I am very very
Speaker 1: excited for the promotion, UM, you know, and I'm very
Speaker 1: excited that this organization trusted me that I deserve the promotion. UM.
Speaker 1: As we speak, I'm in school full time, so I
Speaker 1: graduate next month and I finish up my classes right now.
Speaker 1: So I had to visit this process of going back
Speaker 1: to get my master's last year. API, No, thank you,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. So the NFL like changed the rule. UM.
Speaker 1: I want to say, like a year or two ago
Speaker 1: with the new CBA that you had to have a
Speaker 1: master's degree in order to become a head guy in
Speaker 1: your field. And you know, I was kind of bummed
Speaker 1: out about it in the beginning. But you know, at
Speaker 1: the same time, I'm not against education. I'm not against
Speaker 1: learning more. I'm always you know, super excited about learning
Speaker 1: new things. I'm a nerd at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I might not look might not look like it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm a super nerd. And you know I
Speaker 1: love football. Yeah I love football, but outside of football,
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm into history and the body and everything,
Speaker 1: and so very excited about the opportunity to grow with
Speaker 1: the team once again. Very excited that Tyler, Kevin O'Connell,
Speaker 1: I work with Mike Petton in Cleveland, Quacy, all those
Speaker 1: guys trusting me to do a job for this organization,
Speaker 1: that they know that I have value. That's right. You
Speaker 1: are a familiar face to these players, and so now
Speaker 1: you're heading your sixth season. You said, you know you
Speaker 1: weren't frustrated by the news about needing your masters, But
Speaker 1: what have you noticed about You're obviously at the doorsteps
Speaker 1: of graduating. What have you noticed about getting that degree
Speaker 1: that's maybe changed the way that you approach your job
Speaker 1: or you see the difference that it can make moving forward.
Speaker 1: For me, I've always been like a big picture thinker,
Speaker 1: like I see everything with the big picture and then
Speaker 1: the game of football and I work back from it.
Speaker 1: So what are the demands of the sport. How do
Speaker 1: I work back from it when it comes to getting
Speaker 1: a guy ready to play football? So our goal is
Speaker 1: to get the guys to the race every week, every week.
Speaker 1: And so I'm a big picture thinker. I start there,
Speaker 1: and so for me to go through that process going
Speaker 1: back to the basics and fundamentals, a lot of times
Speaker 1: people don't realize how important that is. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I went through school, you know, ten, eleven, twelve years ago.
Speaker 1: I know what I'm doing. You know I've coached, you know,
Speaker 1: I've had all this experience, like I'm good man, I'm fine.
Speaker 1: But in reality, you know, the thing that you don't
Speaker 1: work on every year is the basics and the fundamentals,
Speaker 1: and when you get away from it, you're doing yourself
Speaker 1: a disservice. And so for me to go back through
Speaker 1: that process of just like going through it again, you
Speaker 1: learn something new every time. It's been a crazy year
Speaker 1: for me because at the same time when I started school,
Speaker 1: my wife got pregnant, and so crazy year, full time,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty six hours one year. You know, baby
Speaker 1: on the way. So I'm managing baby, you know, the
Speaker 1: season and the entire thing, and all I could focus
Speaker 1: on was like, Okay, how can I add value? How
Speaker 1: can I help my team? You know, how can I
Speaker 1: help these players? And? Um, for me, you know, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot more about leadership or different ways to
Speaker 1: approach it, because I think that's very important these days. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, in this game and in the changing environment,
Speaker 1: changing culture, the way football's changes. Um, I think leadership
Speaker 1: is very important. And a lot of people they say, hey, well,
Speaker 1: if you got talent and then you can coach, then
Speaker 1: you should be able to do you know, certain things.
Speaker 1: And my personal opinion is that I think leadership matters
Speaker 1: just as much as talent does because you can learn
Speaker 1: skills as a coach. You can learn skill as a coach,
Speaker 1: But it's it's tough to manage people. It's tough to
Speaker 1: manage personalities, and it's tough to be the type of
Speaker 1: person who's going to come in every day with this
Speaker 1: mindset of like, Okay, how can I think about everyone
Speaker 1: else and not myself? You know, how how can I
Speaker 1: how can I get my staff better? How can I
Speaker 1: get the players better? Um? You know, how can I
Speaker 1: cheer up? There's one person who I know is struggling
Speaker 1: with something very personal. Um, I'm a I'm the type
Speaker 1: of coach that you know, if you talk to any
Speaker 1: one of my players or probably anybody in the building
Speaker 1: that know me on this side, like I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: straightforward person. You know. Sometimes people like think that I'm
Speaker 1: unapproachable because I have a straight face all the time.
Speaker 1: In reality, I have a crazy sense of humor. And
Speaker 1: my goal is start. Yeah, no, I do, And my
Speaker 1: goal is start always be a good teammate because I
Speaker 1: play football my entire life, and so in order for
Speaker 1: me to be successful at what I do is like,
Speaker 1: how can I be a good teammate to you? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm steal in the process of dealing with football, So
Speaker 1: I still can be a good teammate while I'm in
Speaker 1: the building, while I'm in the organization, And so that's
Speaker 1: how I approach the daily aspect of work. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk football a little bit more. But how much has
Speaker 1: being a dad helped with being a leader? Being a
Speaker 1: dad has helped me tremendously because you know, people always say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, having a child changes you, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I get it. I know, you know, bills
Speaker 1: and all these things, man, but yeah, no, sleep and
Speaker 1: all the stresses that come with it, but in reality
Speaker 1: to like really see that you were a part of
Speaker 1: a process where you're responsible for a human being that
Speaker 1: you made, Like it's so weird, Like, man, like this
Speaker 1: child is a part of me. This is my DNA.
Speaker 1: This is so weird to see this thing and at
Speaker 1: the same time be so motivated and driven like I
Speaker 1: have to protect my little girl. I gotta protect I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a daddy, I'm a I'm a girl dad, and
Speaker 1: I love being a girl dad. Because I was very
Speaker 1: nervous about it because you know, I've been a part
Speaker 1: of football in my entire life. I was like, having
Speaker 1: a son's gonna be easy for me, bringing in the
Speaker 1: weight room. Life is good what my dad did with me,
Speaker 1: But having a girl made me very nervous. It made
Speaker 1: me shake to my core because it was like, man,
Speaker 1: I do not want to miss this up. Like I
Speaker 1: do not want to mess this up. I want to
Speaker 1: be the right type of person where you know, she
Speaker 1: knows what it's like for a person to to love
Speaker 1: a woman, to love her mom, to love her and
Speaker 1: and treat her right way, and so um for her
Speaker 1: giving me that motivation every day when I go in
Speaker 1: and I deal with my players. I'm more patient, I'm
Speaker 1: more considerate. Um, I have more empathy. Yeah. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: those little things on the other side of you that
Speaker 1: come out of you that you didn't know that you had.
Speaker 1: And so I could say that my sensitive side came
Speaker 1: out a little bit more. So. You just posted a
Speaker 1: video on Instagram of basically you working the players off
Speaker 1: this off working the players out this offseason, and Tristian Jackson,
Speaker 1: receiver for the Vikings here commented and basically said motivator
Speaker 1: and influencer. How much of motivating and influencing goes into
Speaker 1: being director Assistant director of Player Health and Performance for
Speaker 1: the Vikings. I mean, I think you know, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like this is what we have
Speaker 1: to do because we're asking guys to come in and train,
Speaker 1: and no one likes working out. In reality, no one
Speaker 1: likes to put themselves under stress. No one likes to
Speaker 1: come in and sweat and feel tired. No one likes
Speaker 1: to do that. And so for me, it's my job
Speaker 1: to convince guys that, to say, hey, you know this
Speaker 1: is gonna help you throughout your career. This is this
Speaker 1: is where you plant the seeds you know every day
Speaker 1: investing in your body to become a great player on
Speaker 1: the field. And so for me, my approach, like I say,
Speaker 1: is I build with the guys one on one. I
Speaker 1: want to know about you. I want to know where
Speaker 1: you're from. I want to know how many brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters you have. I want to know about your experience
Speaker 1: with football, How did you get into it? What's your
Speaker 1: favorite sport outside of it. I'm the type of person
Speaker 1: who likes to create dialogue and have subjective information so
Speaker 1: that I can deal with someone too, to grow with them.
Speaker 1: You come in here as being, like I've mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: a familiar face for these guys, but there are a
Speaker 1: lot of faces around here that are brand new to them,
Speaker 1: new to you, and obviously, as you mentioned, really have
Speaker 1: accepted you and have put a lot of face and
Speaker 1: trust in you. How has getting to know this new
Speaker 1: sports science performance and kind of and watching all of
Speaker 1: the I mean to be fair, watching all of the
Speaker 1: titles change and kind of figure out this new way
Speaker 1: that things are being run around here. Um, To be
Speaker 1: completely honest with you, I am super excited about this,
Speaker 1: this entire process and what we are part of right now.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I want to give so much detail,
Speaker 1: but I can't. I can't give you all of it
Speaker 1: good anything. You can't give secrets secrets, but I can
Speaker 1: tell you this. I interview with the Rams two years
Speaker 1: ago for the head job, and so I met Tyler
Speaker 1: one on one for about an hour. And when we met,
Speaker 1: we hit it off instantly because I was I came
Speaker 1: in and I just started rattling off the m familiar
Speaker 1: with it, some familiar with Adham. For me with this,
Speaker 1: I worked with this part. He pulls up this big
Speaker 1: screen and it's a player. Anything that you can think
Speaker 1: of from that type of information on a player and basically,
Speaker 1: like you would see an ESPN game, you would see
Speaker 1: a guy up and you'd have all his measurements. Basically,
Speaker 1: that's what he pulled up to me. And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: like this is insane, and he's like, this is our approach.
Speaker 1: When I saw the light bubb went off for me.
Speaker 1: And when I heard that he was coming here and
Speaker 1: had a chance to contact them when he first got
Speaker 1: here and he just said, hey, you know, he was
Speaker 1: straight up and honest with me, and that's what I
Speaker 1: respect about him. And he's a man of his word.
Speaker 1: And that's what I respect about a lot of these
Speaker 1: guys that are here right now, is that, Hey, I
Speaker 1: got a plan for you. I'm going to show you
Speaker 1: the plan. So he pulls me in the offer, shows
Speaker 1: me his plan that he has for me personally and
Speaker 1: my development of my growth as a coach. And you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, once again, made me super excited because
Speaker 1: because I know we're ten years ahead of the NFL
Speaker 1: in my personal opinion, I've been in the NFL going
Speaker 1: on ten eleven years. I can tell you guys this.
Speaker 1: I've been NFL going on ten eleven years. I've worked
Speaker 1: for seven hit strength coaches in this business, I've worked
Speaker 1: for three different organizations, won a lot of games, lost
Speaker 1: a lot of games. And the approach to the way
Speaker 1: we approach sports performance and dealing with managing player, managing load,
Speaker 1: it's ten years ahead of everyone. And I can honestly
Speaker 1: say that, hands down. If anybody want to debate me
Speaker 1: about it, we can do it. Man, do that, do
Speaker 1: that offer. But I don't think they will win that debating,
Speaker 1: be honest with you, because just just understanding what this
Speaker 1: new regime brings to this this organization and how that's
Speaker 1: going to affect on the playing field. You look at
Speaker 1: that and say, Okay, I know your your your office
Speaker 1: is in the weight room. You you focus a lot
Speaker 1: on strength and condition I know that's not that I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm disrespecting you by saying strength and conditioning. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know like it's not disrespectful. Like I've been
Speaker 1: around in my entire life, everyone has different names for
Speaker 1: It's like high performance in the conditioning, you know, performance enhancement.
Speaker 1: There's so many different names and how people approach it.
Speaker 1: And to be honest with you, some of those names
Speaker 1: are completely different. Like some of those names are completely
Speaker 1: different with guy's approach to how they do things. So
Speaker 1: why would you describe it? You know, for me, performance
Speaker 1: is all encompassing. It's not just weight room. It's returned
Speaker 1: to play, it's managing player load, it's the sports science,
Speaker 1: it's nutrition, it's all of it. And so, like I say,
Speaker 1: from Tyler's aspect, you know, what he's doing for me
Speaker 1: is that he's teaching me. And I appreciate that because
Speaker 1: if someone's willing to sit down and show you everything,
Speaker 1: then man, you you really have to really respect him
Speaker 1: because a lot of people in this business they won't
Speaker 1: do that. And so for me, like, I'm very excited
Speaker 1: about being able to work with these guys. Have you
Speaker 1: had well, I know you had to because I don't
Speaker 1: want to ask any names, but I'll bring up Harrison
Speaker 1: Smith because I asked you about him the other day
Speaker 1: and I was like, how we're some of these guys
Speaker 1: in the weight room. How do you you know, let
Speaker 1: those guys work, but like save them from themselves because
Speaker 1: you I mean you were saying, like Harrison Smith and
Speaker 1: you're what, he's in double digit years, you still have
Speaker 1: to save him from himself. Yeah, So Harry is a
Speaker 1: very unique guy um with his approach to the weight
Speaker 1: room and he likes to train on his own outside
Speaker 1: of the building when he goes back to Tennessee. He
Speaker 1: spends a lot of time in Tennessee and he has
Speaker 1: a trainer that he's been working with since high school.
Speaker 1: And you know, he has that comfort with with him
Speaker 1: because his trainer always challenges him to do, you know,
Speaker 1: things that are not traditional. And so when he comes in,
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, Harry, like you know, let's put
Speaker 1: that down. You know, you know he's but he's very
Speaker 1: It's crazy what he can do because he's so acrobatic
Speaker 1: man like people you know, they think, oh, because of
Speaker 1: his age, Harry is free. He's sharp, bro. People. If
Speaker 1: people think that this guy lost a step, you're you're
Speaker 1: sleeping right now. He is. He is very special because
Speaker 1: he's a true professional in the way that he takes
Speaker 1: care of his body, in the way that he approaches
Speaker 1: the game when it comes to film, and all those things.
Speaker 1: I can give you a story. I remember one day
Speaker 1: we got back late um from a game and like
Speaker 1: maybe three four o'clock in the morning, and he came
Speaker 1: in the following day and I was like, oh, what
Speaker 1: you know, what did you do? Did you get a
Speaker 1: chance to get to sleep? He was like, no, I
Speaker 1: call on massage. Therapis over and she gave me hi
Speaker 1: massige for like two three hours and then out with
Speaker 1: to sleep. And I was like, wait, what, Like, you
Speaker 1: got a massage soon as you got home after we
Speaker 1: got off the planet. That's next level. A lot of
Speaker 1: guys won't do that, and he felt like he needed it.
Speaker 1: And so you know, he's that type of person that's
Speaker 1: gonna really be in tune with his body and know
Speaker 1: how to take care of him. And let's just be clear.
Speaker 1: It's not like a massage that like is going to
Speaker 1: feel great at that point, Like that's like something that's nice,
Speaker 1: like yeah, this is Hey, I'm here to relax, you know.
Speaker 1: This is like deep tissue. Let me get the sowred
Speaker 1: and inside after you play a game side Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to make that clear
Speaker 1: because I think that might be a common misconception because
Speaker 1: that's why this is that that story significant. These guys
Speaker 1: can deal with pain. Man, they're paying talance is insane.
Speaker 1: It's a car wrect every week. Rookies come in. They
Speaker 1: don't really know their body like that. So what is
Speaker 1: the balance of a veteran guy he knows his body
Speaker 1: in year eight, year nine, year ten, versus a rookie
Speaker 1: guy that's working out with this rhetoran guy that's still
Speaker 1: trying to figure out where he belongs on this team
Speaker 1: as far as like getting his strength up. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think from a lot of rookies when they come in,
Speaker 1: they feel the need to prove themselves, and so they
Speaker 1: can be over zealous and times they want to come
Speaker 1: in and lift the weight room their first day and
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, we're not going to approach it like this,
Speaker 1: we need to play football. We're not We're not here
Speaker 1: to win the World Wrestling you know, Federation Championship of Weightlifting.
Speaker 1: We're not doing that. We want you to play football.
Speaker 1: And so some of these guys can get over zealous,
Speaker 1: but they're not too bad because I can tell you
Speaker 1: what colleges are doing right now, because they're getting a
Speaker 1: little bit more hip to sports science. I think they
Speaker 1: do a great job of like introducing things to players,
Speaker 1: and so by the time they get here to us
Speaker 1: and you know, it's time for us to measure it's
Speaker 1: great compliance. In the past, guys would be totally against it.
Speaker 1: Six seven years ago. Oh no, man, you know I'm
Speaker 1: not putting that GPS on you. You know you're trying
Speaker 1: to do this to me, and in reality, we're trying
Speaker 1: to protect you and save you and prolong your career.
Speaker 1: And so with the rookies, the only difference is having
Speaker 1: a strategic plan of how do you go about your
Speaker 1: weekly process. I think that's the difference. Like professionals, I
Speaker 1: do this some mondays, I do this on Tuesdays. I
Speaker 1: do this on Wednesdays, like every week weekend. They have
Speaker 1: everything mapped out these guys are very detailed. What year
Speaker 1: do players figure it out, like figure their bodies out.
Speaker 1: It's different for everyone. It's different for everyone, And my
Speaker 1: personal opinion is like always like week three for I
Speaker 1: mean not year three for for a lot of guys.
Speaker 1: Like year three. Some guys kind of have their their
Speaker 1: their system in place to say, Hey, you know, I
Speaker 1: like to do this type of training. I like to
Speaker 1: go to this trainer. Um, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: get a massage on this day. I want to do
Speaker 1: polities on this day. Um you know, I want to
Speaker 1: do recovery on this day. And that's where you know,
Speaker 1: having Tyler and the rest of the performance staff and
Speaker 1: I'm going to shout all these guys out in a minute.
Speaker 1: Having the rest of the performance staff, we get them,
Speaker 1: We give them a sustainability plan of how to go
Speaker 1: about doing things, and I think, you know, that's where
Speaker 1: we come in and teach these guys during OTAs or
Speaker 1: having the guys in the building for involuntary workouts than
Speaker 1: going into mandatory mini camp. Is there been one person
Speaker 1: that really sticks out is really embracing this new mindset
Speaker 1: or at least benefited maybe the most from this new
Speaker 1: staff coming in kind of injecting this newer way of things. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be the veteran guys. You know,
Speaker 1: the guys have been here for a long time. You know,
Speaker 1: in the past, Um, you know, things were done a
Speaker 1: little bit more traditional, and a lot of guys in
Speaker 1: the NFL they're they're kind of a different They're kind
Speaker 1: of against the traditional way because they feel like that
Speaker 1: it wasn't saving them in their career. They feel like
Speaker 1: they were getting hurt in the offseason and they wanted
Speaker 1: to play for the season. They wanted to be ready
Speaker 1: and prepared. And for us, our approach to the way
Speaker 1: we do things as far as you know, training, practice,
Speaker 1: the entire part of performance. You know, the older guys
Speaker 1: are always gonna, I think, in my personal opinion, gonna
Speaker 1: embrace it more. For sure. It's it's good to have
Speaker 1: that attitude change from the top down. Two, as far
Speaker 1: as veterans and rookie's not really knowing and just buying in,
Speaker 1: because the veterans are buying in right and right. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this about our veterans. Our veterans still
Speaker 1: work like they work really really hard. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of our veterans are over zealous guys sometimes too
Speaker 1: where you gotta like stop them from going too heavy,
Speaker 1: you know, too fast. Like I remember the first day,
Speaker 1: the first week, we came in and we were doing
Speaker 1: like an upper body lift and I got guys, you know,
Speaker 1: they're going above three fifteen and we're doing like sets
Speaker 1: of six, and I'm like, hey, hey, man, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: let's ease into this process. I don't know where you
Speaker 1: guys come from. You guys haven't been with me for
Speaker 1: two months. That's one thing in the past that I
Speaker 1: dealt with with some teams is that some veteran guys
Speaker 1: don't feel like they don't they don't need to work anymore.
Speaker 1: And that's where you when you get complacent, is where
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna fire your self out. I love Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 1: I love Jordan and those guys and their mindset and
Speaker 1: their approach to where they train and the way they
Speaker 1: go about things to win a championship is in my
Speaker 1: personal opinion that the best I've been around is the
Speaker 1: best I've seen in sports as far as like doing
Speaker 1: research and guys and when it comes to mindset and
Speaker 1: getting ready to be an athlete, do you send these
Speaker 1: players home with a workout plan or do you let
Speaker 1: them kind of figure it out based off of their
Speaker 1: bodies with their trainers first and foremost. You know, there
Speaker 1: are guys, this is our team, and so we send
Speaker 1: them home with detailed instruction on what you should do
Speaker 1: from here to when you get back to training camp.
Speaker 1: And so Josh put Josh Hainks the director. He put
Speaker 1: together a great plan and he sat down with me
Speaker 1: Marquis Dan, our sports scientists, and we went over the
Speaker 1: plan of like, Okay, how are we going to approach
Speaker 1: the summer training What do we need to do leading
Speaker 1: back up to a training camp? Like I always say,
Speaker 1: look at the big picture of work back from the
Speaker 1: demands of the game. What do we need to do
Speaker 1: to get ready for training camp? And so we sat down,
Speaker 1: came up with a strategic detail plan, went over the
Speaker 1: entire plan with the entire performance team. And that's something
Speaker 1: I haven't done in the past, where you know, hey Tyler,
Speaker 1: we need to talk about this, Hey you're Ryan, we
Speaker 1: need to talk about this anybody. That's a part of
Speaker 1: the process where we have guys who are injured here
Speaker 1: right now, Like we are very structured in the way
Speaker 1: and very organized in a way that we do things
Speaker 1: that our days are mapped out, our weeks are mapped out,
Speaker 1: that they have a detail plan going into training camp.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm pretty sure that everyone listening now can
Speaker 1: just see how passionate you are about this and just
Speaker 1: the excitement that honestly, like you're you have exuded excitement
Speaker 1: about this whole system, which which for fans should also
Speaker 1: make them really excited to see the results in the
Speaker 1: field and hopefully, you know, a turnaround to what has
Speaker 1: been happening in recent years as far as the number
Speaker 1: of injuries. Yeah, and yielding more wins. Yeah, that's always
Speaker 1: the goal, and that's what you're the business of her. Sure,
Speaker 1: not just winning winning, like but winning a championship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know a lot I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: like that's a misconception where it's like, all, yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I just want to compete, I just want to
Speaker 1: win it. Though I want to win a championship. I'm
Speaker 1: here to win a Super Bowl. Like when I go
Speaker 1: to work every day, I'm thinking about trying to win
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl. That's why I was so excited for
Speaker 1: Tyler to come, because he just wanted a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Just won a super Bowl, Um, Josh, our director, he
Speaker 1: won a super Bowl in Philly. A lot of our
Speaker 1: coaches have won super Bowls. They know what it takes,
Speaker 1: and so to be around a big umbrella of those
Speaker 1: guys and learn from those guys, It's like, what better
Speaker 1: way to do that? You know? Super Bowl has to
Speaker 1: be the number one thing that you think about when
Speaker 1: you come to work every day for first, no doubt,
Speaker 1: no doubt. Well, thank you so much for taking time
Speaker 1: out of data be on the middle of the podcasting
Speaker 1: you assistant director of Player performs. No, this has been great.
Speaker 1: Anytime you want to come talk about it, talk all
Speaker 1: day like you know. That's why guys let me in
Speaker 1: the weight room too. You know I'll talk their head off,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on how field I got enough caffeine
Speaker 1: at me, so, oh caffine or not, you're gonna be talking.
Speaker 1: I know that. Yeah. Not appreciate you for sure. Now
Speaker 1: you have a great sense of humor, straight faced, a
Speaker 1: great sense of humor. I'm a funny guy. Big thank
Speaker 1: you to Derek Keys for taking the time to speak
Speaker 1: with us. Just as you said, Gay, I like the
Speaker 1: analogy used earlier. Just a life coach for these guys,
Speaker 1: but also just looking out for the good MS people
Speaker 1: and his players, and that's that's what counts in this
Speaker 1: building for sure. I think that's I mean, that's obviously
Speaker 1: why you keep someone like that on despite a coaching chef.
Speaker 1: You need that in every department, whether that's v in
Speaker 1: or marketing or activation and on the football side. And
Speaker 1: I feel like Keys is a staple for this Minnesota
Speaker 1: Vikings football team and it's only going to continue to
Speaker 1: be shown as this Viking seam continues to elevate throughout
Speaker 1: the season. I just think it tends to show reputation
Speaker 1: has helped him. You know, he's earned his reputation here.
Speaker 1: He's been able to survive and go through those different changes,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of times the voice of
Speaker 1: the player is somebody that they also kind of survey
Speaker 1: just to see, you know, how you're feeling about, who
Speaker 1: do you like working with, who do you think is
Speaker 1: really helping you. And the fact that he survived this
Speaker 1: long through these changes, I think speaks volumes for his
Speaker 1: reputation at this point. So it's great to have him
Speaker 1: still in the building. He brings that former player mindset,
Speaker 1: stand out running back himself at Louisiana Lafayette shout out
Speaker 1: raging Cajuns, but it is really nice to see him
Speaker 1: in the building for him to take the time to
Speaker 1: talk to us. We hope that you've enjoyed getting to
Speaker 1: know our coaches and staff a little bit better throughout
Speaker 1: this summer. But guys, I mean, the players get here Sunday,
Speaker 1: so it is go time. This will be our last
Speaker 1: podcast with no players in the building. So excited to
Speaker 1: see what we have in store for you guys as
Speaker 1: training camp kicks off. So just to make sure, make
Speaker 1: sure that you are ready to go, be sure to
Speaker 1: subscribe to this podcast. You can download the Vikings app
Speaker 1: if you don't already have it, subscribe to our YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: bookmark Vikings dot com. Whatever you need to do to
Speaker 1: keep up to date on everything Minnesota Vikings is we
Speaker 1: kick off the twenty twenty two training camp, which I
Speaker 1: feel like I should just say kicks off really the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two season. I'm excited, guys, I mean, this
Speaker 1: is what we've all been waiting for. One day closer
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame games coming for the league. Where yeah,
Speaker 1: forty nine days out from the official kickoff to the
Speaker 1: NFL season. Yeah, it's definitely no time. One more full
Speaker 1: week without football for the rest of the year. I'm
Speaker 1: excited about all right. Well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: listening to the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Be sure to head
Speaker 1: over to vikings dot com Slash Training Camp to get
Speaker 1: your tickets. Gabe, Jay and I hope to see you
Speaker 1: guys out there. At All begins next week Back together
Speaker 1: Saturday on July thirtieth,