Speaker 1: I didn't know what husband to said, but I had
Speaker 1: a great feeling, you know about coast Pattison know, talking
Speaker 1: with me and leaving to me and telling him it
Speaker 1: was like, man like, I got a place for the Vikings.
Speaker 1: The things that I've learned to college and being able
Speaker 1: to you know, learn even more and the pros is
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, a big thing for me.
Speaker 1: How's a lot the stars the limit, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm ready to get the work. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: si Amondson here and welcome to episode fifty of the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Fifty we have officially done fifty since
Speaker 1: it became the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. We've got a great
Speaker 1: show for you today. We're gonna talk about some of
Speaker 1: the changes going on pre preseason. Our Chris Corso has
Speaker 1: an interview with new defensive end DJ Wantam, and we
Speaker 1: are probably gonna have to dive into the largest contract
Speaker 1: in the history of professional sports. Joining me from Vikings
Speaker 1: dot Com or Chris Corso and Jay Nelson and guys,
Speaker 1: let's start with the news that is relevant to everyone
Speaker 1: in the league but also relevant to the Vikings, and
Speaker 1: that is that, due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. The
Speaker 1: NFL has announced that they are cutting the preseason schedule
Speaker 1: from four games down to two. Each team will have
Speaker 1: one away game one home game, which means the Vikings,
Speaker 1: who during that time period had two away games, will
Speaker 1: have to have a bit of an altered schedule here.
Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait and see what it looks like.
Speaker 1: I think the players Union, you know, from my understanding,
Speaker 1: the players Association, wanted to scrap the entire preseason pandemic aside.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously that's what's driving this, but the preseason
Speaker 1: has been a talker for a while. Now. Guys, how
Speaker 1: are you feeling again past the obviously, let's be as
Speaker 1: safe as possible. How does this change make you feel? Chris? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of like cutting off the dead
Speaker 1: fat at this point. I think the players are pretty
Speaker 1: excited about only playing two preseason games. I mean, I know,
Speaker 1: as just being a part of it. Working wise, by
Speaker 1: the third fourth week, you're kind of like you're ready
Speaker 1: to be done with it. Most teams, including the Vikings
Speaker 1: last year, didn't even play any of their starters in
Speaker 1: that fourth game in the preseason, so I think it
Speaker 1: should be two forever going forward. But we'll see if
Speaker 1: they get to in as you As you said with
Speaker 1: the NFLPA wanting to have zero preseason games, So I
Speaker 1: am very very excited for this. Hopefully they play the games,
Speaker 1: but I think it's a positive thing for the league
Speaker 1: and for the player's health as well, because when there's
Speaker 1: a big injury like I remember Jordy Nelson a few
Speaker 1: years ago for the for the Packers, which was good
Speaker 1: for the Vikings, but you hate to see guys go
Speaker 1: down in the preseason. You might learn some things about
Speaker 1: your league. With the NBA, well, they find out that
Speaker 1: starting at a different time and finishing at a different
Speaker 1: time is better in an effort to grow their fan base,
Speaker 1: you know. So with the NFL, I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of questions about this preseason thing. They always happen,
Speaker 1: and obviously the players are going to love it. I
Speaker 1: think most fans are gonna love it because they are
Speaker 1: just ready to get to the football that matters. But
Speaker 1: the other side of it is the conversation of the
Speaker 1: coaches and the general managers and the team personnel that
Speaker 1: are responsible for putting a good product on the field.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's been all these proponents of when
Speaker 1: training camp changed and the physical nature of offseasons changed,
Speaker 1: has that diminished the level of play. I'm not taking
Speaker 1: a side on that issue. I'm just saying that's been
Speaker 1: a conversation that keeps happening. So now you're losing a
Speaker 1: chance to evaluate depth good for some people, bad for others.
Speaker 1: And if nothing else, it's something that needs to happen
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic, and you could probably use it
Speaker 1: as a real learning experience to see how it affects
Speaker 1: the quality of play, because to me, my answer to
Speaker 1: every controversial NFL question is what does it do to
Speaker 1: the quality of play? Because you know, I remember a
Speaker 1: couple of seasons ago, just throughout the year, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: it was just dud week after dud week after dud week.
Speaker 1: And I think that was more coincidence than anything else.
Speaker 1: But you want to see football played at its absolute best,
Speaker 1: because when it is, there's nothing better on the earth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think what you're seeing from this stuff now
Speaker 1: is that there is a lot of discussion going on
Speaker 1: between the league and the players union themselves, just because
Speaker 1: I think the league is kind of saying, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: going to take what your goal was or what your
Speaker 1: wish was into consideration, but we don't have to. There's
Speaker 1: other stuff now that's coming out as far as percentages
Speaker 1: and paychecks and other things like that too, now that
Speaker 1: there's less games. I mean, I know internally here from
Speaker 1: our side, there's a lot of different stuff that goes
Speaker 1: into it, not only from the logistics side, but just
Speaker 1: the business side. And I think, yes, there's been discussion
Speaker 1: for a long time about adjusting from four preseason to
Speaker 1: three or to two. I on the other hand, at
Speaker 1: this point, will kind of raise my hand and say,
Speaker 1: if there was ever a time to have a little
Speaker 1: bit more preseason, it would be this year, purely because
Speaker 1: they haven't had an off season. So as long as
Speaker 1: those two weeks of extra time that they have to
Speaker 1: work on this stuff instead of games, if they're able
Speaker 1: to utilize that to help with practice, great, But at
Speaker 1: the same point, if there was ever a time to
Speaker 1: get some more live reps with these guys, it might
Speaker 1: be this season. It's just frustrating that the pandemic being
Speaker 1: what it is, has been kind of the precursor to
Speaker 1: make this happen. Hopefully there is a silver lining in
Speaker 1: the future that maybe they do learn some beneficial things
Speaker 1: moving forward when they have to do negotiations. But for me,
Speaker 1: it's just a bummer that we're going to lose more
Speaker 1: potential games in football. But you gotta do what you
Speaker 1: got to do at this point. I'm a big fan
Speaker 1: of the prove it method. People love to argue, and
Speaker 1: they love to debate, and they love to be right
Speaker 1: without any proof. So to me, this is a great
Speaker 1: opportunity for the prove it theory. You know, these people
Speaker 1: who are saying shorter preseason, no, all these things, Well,
Speaker 1: here's your chance. We're gonna see what happens, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna see what the football games look like. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get into week four, Week five, Week six, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna go, hey, it would be nice to have some
Speaker 1: depth right now, and it is very clear that the
Speaker 1: lack of offseason preseason is affecting it. Or we're gonna
Speaker 1: look at it and we're gonna go, you know what,
Speaker 1: We're fine. I think it'll be pretty clear cut. The
Speaker 1: great thing about the NFL is coaches are usually pretty
Speaker 1: vocal about the things that make their job terribly difficult.
Speaker 1: You know, you saw that last year with the past
Speaker 1: interference challenges. So if we get halfway into the season
Speaker 1: and all these coaches are recognizing what a shortened preseason
Speaker 1: did to their job, I have a feeling we're going
Speaker 1: to hear some of them say it. You definitely start
Speaker 1: to think about players like old BC Johnson who had
Speaker 1: just such a great preseason. In those moments, whether it
Speaker 1: was towards the end of the preseason and only two games,
Speaker 1: that's limited reps for guys like that, limited reps for
Speaker 1: the late round draft picks. And when you're the Vikings
Speaker 1: and you have fifteen draft picks, you're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to see these guys on the field as
Speaker 1: much with two less games. But um, I think what
Speaker 1: the players want is more practices, and that's that's what
Speaker 1: you see all over Twitter and all over ESPN. So
Speaker 1: they're they're going to have to value those practice reps.
Speaker 1: I well, let me let me be selfish for a
Speaker 1: second here. Now, the Vikings do have a lot of turnover.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it at Ton. They have a lot
Speaker 1: of new names on defense, but they don't have scheme turnover.
Speaker 1: You understand, they don't have like leadership turnover. You know,
Speaker 1: you had Kirk is still here, Dalvin is still here,
Speaker 1: Theeland is still here, Rudy's still here. On defense, you
Speaker 1: got a lot of the leader's bar, Griffin Harrison. There
Speaker 1: is leadership and scheme in place here. So when you
Speaker 1: when you look at what teams really like, just selfishly
Speaker 1: as a Vikings fan for one season, do I think
Speaker 1: there are teams that are in even better shape than
Speaker 1: we are in terms of continuity and roster overhauled. Yes,
Speaker 1: But if you're breaking the league down and where do
Speaker 1: the Vikings land, I think you're near the top of
Speaker 1: the list, or at least in the top half of continuity,
Speaker 1: and you should be able to walk out and play football. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that when it comes to you're talking about
Speaker 1: the coaching side and being more vocal, you're talking about
Speaker 1: these kind of changes with the players, are talking about
Speaker 1: the leadership. We have a set team here as far
Speaker 1: as being able to plug and play now. The biggest
Speaker 1: question mark has been what's going to happen in the secondary.
Speaker 1: And I think as far as we are set when
Speaker 1: it comes to defensive line, offensive line, linebackers, wide receivers, quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: running backs, we have proven people within our ranks who
Speaker 1: can be the leaders on this team. What I'm hoping for, though,
Speaker 1: is that some of the younger guys from last year
Speaker 1: do step up. You do have guys that came back
Speaker 1: from injuries that you're hoping will be those leaders that
Speaker 1: can step into some of those senior roles. And it's
Speaker 1: gonna have to be a shotgun start for those players
Speaker 1: that are new on this team, because man, I really
Speaker 1: hope that this past offseason they've been paying attention to
Speaker 1: those playbooks because now they're going to actually have to
Speaker 1: put pen to paper when they walk in the door
Speaker 1: and do it almost immediately. The thing that we are
Speaker 1: not going to have to wait to see how it
Speaker 1: develops for twelve calendar years is Patrick Mahomes's contract situation.
Speaker 1: Who lee a ten year nearly if everything comes together
Speaker 1: jay five hundred and three million dollar contract. It's an
Speaker 1: extension on top of his already two year current existing agreement.
Speaker 1: I have ten million thoughts about this, But first I'm
Speaker 1: gonna courso because I tried to ask you a question
Speaker 1: about it before the show, and you sounded like an
Speaker 1: eighth grader trying to like describe molecular biology. You were like, well,
Speaker 1: because when the thing for he throws it like it
Speaker 1: was nonsense. So you and I are going to be
Speaker 1: dummies and get out of the way, because Jay, you
Speaker 1: explained it better because my first question was like, I
Speaker 1: was surprised that none of it was tied to the cap.
Speaker 1: There's some interesting triggers. Do you want to kind of
Speaker 1: tell us what it looks like? Patrick Mahomes, I think
Speaker 1: he's got five hundred and three reasons that he should
Speaker 1: be very, very excited right now, and especially for his fas.
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest with you, Chris. I want to
Speaker 1: apologize to you. When I criticized you and sent it
Speaker 1: to Jay, I didn't think he was going to use
Speaker 1: the old hackey. Well, there's about five hundred three billion
Speaker 1: reasons he's gonna love kids of city jeepers. Jay, what
Speaker 1: are you my dad's dad? All right? All right, there's
Speaker 1: twelve reasons why he should be excited with the next
Speaker 1: twelve years of his career. How about that one, Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: at this point is set. Bruce is gonna love that intro.
Speaker 1: Keep going. I love Bruce. The thing about this contract
Speaker 1: is it is unprecedented. It is the largest American sports
Speaker 1: contract on record, five hundred and three million dollars over
Speaker 1: the next twelve seasons. Essentially the deal for him as
Speaker 1: he's got four hundred and fifty million dollars for the
Speaker 1: ten year extension, so that average is about forty five
Speaker 1: million a year, another twenty five million in basically escalators
Speaker 1: that he can hit on an annual incentive basis, and
Speaker 1: then for the next two seasons he's due twenty seven
Speaker 1: point sixty three million, so that gets you two year
Speaker 1: roughly almost five hundred and three million dollars. So the
Speaker 1: crazy part about it is that technically people are citing
Speaker 1: it as a team friendly deal, which is insane to
Speaker 1: think about half a billion dollars being a team friendly deal.
Speaker 1: But when you're talking about a guy who's twenty four
Speaker 1: years old and who's essentially hitting the peak of his career,
Speaker 1: he's going to be thirty six when he's done, and
Speaker 1: the crazy part is he could actually hit another contract
Speaker 1: after that. So the deal is the Chiefs are only
Speaker 1: on the hook for sixty three million dollars guaranteed at signing.
Speaker 1: There's one hundred and forty one million dollar hook in
Speaker 1: case he gets injured that they would have to pay
Speaker 1: him off of this deal. But in general, the team
Speaker 1: themselves have an annual year to year basis that they
Speaker 1: can choose to honor the contract or choose to cut him,
Speaker 1: and it's a safety valve for them as well, to say, listen,
Speaker 1: as long as this guy is essentially our Tom Brady
Speaker 1: for the next twelve years of his career, we're going
Speaker 1: to keep hitting this contract year after year after year.
Speaker 1: But there is a no trade clause, so their only
Speaker 1: options are either pick up this side of the contract
Speaker 1: or cut him. And I think for a guy like
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes, as young as he is, as talented he is,
Speaker 1: and he's the face of the league, five hundred and
Speaker 1: three million is a lot of dough. At the same point,
Speaker 1: you just go Everybody always thinks those quarterback contracts that
Speaker 1: are huge until you get five ten years down the
Speaker 1: road and then say it's actually not that bad. So
Speaker 1: I think, for a guy like Patrick Mahomes, good on him,
Speaker 1: Good on the Chiefs for locking him up. It's going
Speaker 1: to be crazy over the next twelve years to see
Speaker 1: how this whole thing changes the league in general. So
Speaker 1: I looked at it in three ways. I'll tell you them.
Speaker 1: From the moment I saw the tweet. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you the three ways the contract hit me. The first
Speaker 1: way it hit me was as a fan, and I
Speaker 1: thought about how great it would be to be a
Speaker 1: fan of a professional football team who just locked up Patrick.
Speaker 1: What a golden era to be a Kansas City Chiefs
Speaker 1: fan yesterday had to have been amazing. Right then, I
Speaker 1: think of it in terms of an angry fan. I go,
Speaker 1: damn it, the Chiefs are going to have Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: on a decent deal for the next not decent. It's
Speaker 1: obviously a large deal, but a decent deal. Like you said,
Speaker 1: people are saying it's somewhat team friendly. This isn't a
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning ruined your salary cap guaranteed situation with the
Speaker 1: Colts that makes it hard to put the rest of
Speaker 1: the team around you. They might have walked that line.
Speaker 1: The third way I looked at it was what if
Speaker 1: I were Patrick Mahomes And I was looking some stuff
Speaker 1: up and I looked up in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: the top salary in the NFL for quarterbacks was Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning twenty one million dollars. Second was I can't remember
Speaker 1: who it was, but it was twenty million, and then
Speaker 1: third was Matt Castle at sixteen million. Ten years later,
Speaker 1: the top contract in the league is Russ Wilson at
Speaker 1: over thirty million dollars, and you have over sixteen quarterbacks
Speaker 1: making nearly over twenty million dollars, which is what Peyton
Speaker 1: was making ten years ago. So with the popularity of
Speaker 1: the sport and the unknown of the possibility of growth,
Speaker 1: and you don't even know what the media landscape is
Speaker 1: gonna look like in four years, Like who knows how
Speaker 1: live TV changes and what the NFL does in terms
Speaker 1: of putting their events on. Like you could see a
Speaker 1: situation twelve years from now where, like you said, you're
Speaker 1: getting forty fifty sixty million dollars and you could be
Speaker 1: worth eighty five ninety. Do I think that'll happen. No,
Speaker 1: I think it'll probably follow the trajectory of his contract.
Speaker 1: But if I'm him, I don't know, man, I might, dude,
Speaker 1: I might just play. I don't know. It's hard to say.
Speaker 1: Half a million, half half a billion dollars is a
Speaker 1: hilarious amount of money. Do you ever think about the
Speaker 1: Bears just taking Mitchell Trubisky with the number two pick?
Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta love that. That might have set
Speaker 1: them back twenty years. Yeah, I just said the Bears.
Speaker 1: The Bears dodged a half. I saw somebody tweet that
Speaker 1: the Bears dodged a five hundred million dollar bullet. The
Speaker 1: funny part for me was that as soon as this
Speaker 1: thing had I have a really good friend of mine
Speaker 1: who lives in Denver, and and I just sent him
Speaker 1: an image of Emma Stone eating ice cream crying, and
Speaker 1: I said, you can send us to your Broncos friends.
Speaker 1: Given that they now have to deal with Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: for the next twelve seasons in the AFC, I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of team knowing that Patrick Mahomes is
Speaker 1: going to be and sitting in their neighbor's yard for
Speaker 1: the next twelve years, it's got to be very daunting.
Speaker 1: I for one, him happy he's not in the NFC,
Speaker 1: But I think overall, a guy like Patrick Mahomes getting
Speaker 1: rewarded at the age that he is, I think it's
Speaker 1: smart on all sides to jump on this deal, because
Speaker 1: guess what if it gets to a point where it's
Speaker 1: really crazy in the future. I am sure they'd be
Speaker 1: willing to renegotiate if need be. But a guy like
Speaker 1: Patrick's going to be able to somewhat call his shot
Speaker 1: and do what he needs to do. But for right now,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a gigantic chunk of money and it
Speaker 1: seems like it's going to work for all sides. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the interesting thing to me. I think the reason
Speaker 1: that I was surprised it wasn't tied to the salary
Speaker 1: cap and I was surprised it was so long is because,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe other than Lebron, I just can't think
Speaker 1: of an athlete who has even remotely the type of
Speaker 1: leverage that a twenty four year old Super Bowl winning
Speaker 1: MVP quarterback like him. It's just it's nearly an precedented
Speaker 1: amount of leverage, is what the man had. I think
Speaker 1: he's smart enough to understand that they need to put
Speaker 1: a team around him. But you have to almost believe
Speaker 1: virtually any demand Patrick Mahomes had would be met, because
Speaker 1: if they won't meet it, anyone else in the league would.
Speaker 1: It was just an odd amount of leverage. I will
Speaker 1: say that kicker that if he gets injured and his
Speaker 1: career is over, they have to write him one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty million dollar check. That would make me pretty
Speaker 1: apt to sign on the dotted line, that's a pretty
Speaker 1: good amount of insurance. Yeah, agreed. And I think the
Speaker 1: fact that it's only sixty three million as a signing
Speaker 1: bonus when he starts, I mean in general that number
Speaker 1: is minor to any other contract you would typically see.
Speaker 1: So you've got that and one hundred and forty one
Speaker 1: million dollar guarantee. I mean, how many quarterbacks have we
Speaker 1: seen kind of boom and bust and have something like
Speaker 1: that happened due to some sort of an injury. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've had a couple of cases here with the Vikings.
Speaker 1: I think for a guy like Patrick, that's a very
Speaker 1: good insurance plan and it's something that again the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are more than willing to put up there. So congrats
Speaker 1: to Patrick Mahomes. You can put as much catch up
Speaker 1: on stakes as you want at this point for the
Speaker 1: rest of your career. All right, Well, let's go from
Speaker 1: a guy who got the biggest contract in professional sports
Speaker 1: history to a guy who just got his first contract
Speaker 1: the Vikings this year in the fourth round drafted defensive
Speaker 1: end DJ want him out of the University of South Carolinas.
Speaker 1: Somebody I know that a defensive line coach slash co
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator Andrea Patterson, a guy he was really pushing
Speaker 1: for in the NFL draft, a guy that he I
Speaker 1: know he really wanted, and we ended up getting him.
Speaker 1: A guy who's speed in size kind of and this
Speaker 1: is laughable for me to say this because of the
Speaker 1: weird specimen that Daniel Hunter is, but he's got a
Speaker 1: little bit of that giant statue who runs really fast
Speaker 1: and crushes people vibe to him. Chris got to sit
Speaker 1: down with DJ and kind of get to know him.
Speaker 1: Anything you want to tell us before we run this interview. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing was he talked about being
Speaker 1: with coach Andre Patterson at the combine and he said, man,
Speaker 1: that conversation was so good that I didn't know one
Speaker 1: hundred percent that I was going to be a Viking,
Speaker 1: but I felt pretty darn good about it. So you'll
Speaker 1: hear a little more detail around that in the interview,
Speaker 1: but that was really cool to hear how confident he
Speaker 1: was that the Vikings were going to select him at
Speaker 1: one point well, and as a staff and a leadership
Speaker 1: group that has put together a good roster since it
Speaker 1: basically came together when Zimmer got here. You know, there
Speaker 1: are very few things I'm more confident in than our
Speaker 1: ability to develop defensive lineman, and so knowing how Andre
Speaker 1: Patterson feels and knowing the buzz about DJ, I'm not
Speaker 1: expecting him to walk out and be a superstar day one.
Speaker 1: But honestly, everybody's everybody's talking about Justin Jefferson, everybody's talking
Speaker 1: about all these draft picks. DJ is the one that
Speaker 1: I am honestly looking the most forward to seeing what
Speaker 1: preseason and the regular season brings for him and what
Speaker 1: kind of player is going to be. So I was
Speaker 1: psyched to see you get this interview. Chris, Uh, let's
Speaker 1: let your other self take it away. This is Chris
Speaker 1: Corso here with the Vikings newest defensive end, Andre Patterson's
Speaker 1: pet cat is How is how we know him? At
Speaker 1: the Vikings Entertainment Network. It's DJ one on the Vikings
Speaker 1: fourth round draft pick out of the University of South Carolina.
Speaker 1: What's going on? Man? It's going home? Man? How you're
Speaker 1: doing a longside to be here? No, you know, give
Speaker 1: a little talk to King's Nation. So how ya do it?
Speaker 1: We're very excited that you're wearing that Vikings purple T
Speaker 1: shirt right now. You must have been pretty excited for
Speaker 1: this interview. Oh yeah, you know, I had to. I
Speaker 1: had to throw it on man, you know, allprop everything.
Speaker 1: So let's get it. So Vikings co defensive coordinator Andre Patters,
Speaker 1: and he is a big fan of yours. I mean,
Speaker 1: one thing that stuck out to me when he spoke
Speaker 1: last week is he said, DJ want him. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of things to teach him, but I can't
Speaker 1: teach these six foot five, two hundred and fifty eight
Speaker 1: pound body that he has. So other than that, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be trying to teach you a lot this offseason. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: just you know, having to zoom meetings, you know, throughout
Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks, I've learned a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: in that little span of time. So I'm excited to
Speaker 1: get to working with him in person. Yeah. What has
Speaker 1: it been like learning from Andre? He has had a
Speaker 1: twotelage of defensive lineman that he's taught over the years.
Speaker 1: I mean ever since Griffin, Danielle Hunter to name a few.
Speaker 1: That's got to be pretty pretty awesome for you because
Speaker 1: you're like, I want to be one of those guys.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely, you know, just you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: from the past couple of weeks, you know him just
Speaker 1: you know, watching my fan from college and being able to,
Speaker 1: you know, show me all the things that I've done wrong,
Speaker 1: and then you know him, you know, having a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, you know, praising me for me coming
Speaker 1: in and being able to you know, get on the
Speaker 1: him and learn from the things that he's taking those
Speaker 1: other great guys. So I'm excited, you know, to get
Speaker 1: up there and get to work. What has it been
Speaker 1: like working with Neil Hunter? Obviously there's been the comparisons
Speaker 1: about your body type being pretty similar coming out of college.
Speaker 1: He's a little bit of a quiet guy, but he's
Speaker 1: definitely a leader from the Vikings defense out there. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just been great, you know, from just from you know,
Speaker 1: the little meetings that we've been having and walked through.
Speaker 1: You can definitely tell, you know, his leadership presence and
Speaker 1: you know, just you know him being there. It's a
Speaker 1: great thing. So I want to go back to your
Speaker 1: career at the University of South Carolina. You were a
Speaker 1: young freshman, playing just about every snap that you could,
Speaker 1: and by your sophomore season you were named a captain.
Speaker 1: As a sophomore, you were a captain for the rest
Speaker 1: of the years there. So what was it like being
Speaker 1: a leader at such a young age of that defense.
Speaker 1: You know, it was a great name, you know, my
Speaker 1: team as you know, voting me as a captain as
Speaker 1: a sophomore. It was an incredible feeling just knowing that,
Speaker 1: you know, you're a young guy and a lot of
Speaker 1: guys I already look up to you, so, you know,
Speaker 1: looking up to you know, the future at South Carolina.
Speaker 1: It was a great thing just knowing, you know, the
Speaker 1: guys looking up to me. So you know, I had
Speaker 1: to be on my p's and q's, you know, each
Speaker 1: and every day. The way your college had coach will
Speaker 1: Muschamp described you, He said, your football intelligence is off
Speaker 1: the charts. So tell Vikings fans what to expect when
Speaker 1: it comes to your football. IQ. Oh man, you just
Speaker 1: said it right there. You know, football and tallenges I've chart,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, bringing my things that I've learned to
Speaker 1: college and being able to you know, learn even more
Speaker 1: and um and the pros is going to be you
Speaker 1: know a big thing for me. Um and being able
Speaker 1: to you know, took up some knowledge from Daniel Hern
Speaker 1: coach Andre Patterson. I feel like the sky's the limit,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm I'm excited. I'm ready to get
Speaker 1: to work. So tell Vikings fans probably something off the
Speaker 1: field that they should know about you, something that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't already know. They know you're a pass rusher. We
Speaker 1: know Andre Patterson loves you. But what would they not
Speaker 1: know about you off the field. It's hard, man, you
Speaker 1: just put me on spot. I can't really, I gotta
Speaker 1: put you on the spot a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, I feel like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a great person, you know all around you know, I
Speaker 1: want others to you know, excel and exceed and whatever
Speaker 1: they want to do. So, you know, just being a
Speaker 1: positive light, you know, to my family, my friends, and
Speaker 1: even people that I don't know, you know, looking up
Speaker 1: to me. Um, It's just it's just a big thing,
Speaker 1: and that's what keeps me going. That's what keeps you know,
Speaker 1: boosting and pushing forward each day. Speaking of your family,
Speaker 1: your younger brother doing played at the University of South
Speaker 1: Carolina as well. Um, two years younger than you. What
Speaker 1: was that like playing with your brother? He was on
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the wall, all right, you know,
Speaker 1: it was a great thing, you know from him coming
Speaker 1: you know, straight to high school, straight to South Carolina, Um,
Speaker 1: and you know, just him, you know, having him under
Speaker 1: my wing and you know, just showing him the ropes
Speaker 1: and he's actually been doing you know, a great job
Speaker 1: up there, and I'm excited for the future to come
Speaker 1: with him as well. So your junior season at the
Speaker 1: University of South Carolina, you suffered a few injuries there
Speaker 1: and you weren't able to play many games. You come
Speaker 1: back your senior season and you're the comeback player the
Speaker 1: year and you had an incredible senior season. So so
Speaker 1: what was that like just going through those injuries your
Speaker 1: junior season and then coming back and really showing out
Speaker 1: your senior season. You know, you know my junior season,
Speaker 1: you know, it was definitely a hard time, you know,
Speaker 1: suffering injuries, especially never having injured serious injuries before. So
Speaker 1: just just um that happened to me my junior kind
Speaker 1: of you know, just taught me things. You know, you
Speaker 1: gotta go harder. Um, you gotta you know, be a
Speaker 1: leader for your teammates even though you're not you know,
Speaker 1: around and doing things like that. You know, just coming
Speaker 1: into a Viking's nation, I feel like my leadership and
Speaker 1: you know, my abilities is what's gonna set me the part.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty cool to be able to play in
Speaker 1: the SEC in college. I can't even imagine the caliber
Speaker 1: of offensive linemen you were going up against. Who was
Speaker 1: kind of a guy on the other side that when
Speaker 1: you faced up against me, you're like, man, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be tough to beat him today. Um, you know a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, weekend week out, you know NBC SEC.
Speaker 1: You know, it's great competition. You know throughout um the
Speaker 1: office line. You know, it was pretty good. I want
Speaker 1: to gainst those guys. But you know, like every week,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's everybody's good, you know SEC. So
Speaker 1: just you know, being able to get better and play
Speaker 1: against you know how competition, and it was a great thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think Andrew Thomas was on that Georgia team. He
Speaker 1: was a first round draft pick this year. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: You know, a great athlete and you know he's from
Speaker 1: around the area, so you know, just going to get
Speaker 1: going up against him, you know, it was it was great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to playing against that kind of competition in college. How
Speaker 1: do you see that translating to your performance on the
Speaker 1: field as as a as a young rookie. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, it just kind of gives me,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a step forward, you know, playing
Speaker 1: against guys that were first rounders and kind of just
Speaker 1: shows me what I'm going to be, you know, facing
Speaker 1: in the league you know, weekend and week out and mentally,
Speaker 1: you know, it's getting be prepared, yeah, and looking at
Speaker 1: your kind of your your arc coming up through the draft.
Speaker 1: You were selected to the Reese's Senior Bowl UM and
Speaker 1: performed really well there. Did you have any interactions with
Speaker 1: the Vikings at the Senior Bowl? UM? I think I
Speaker 1: had a meeting, but it wasn't you know, it was
Speaker 1: just a small meeting. It was nothing big. But my
Speaker 1: first like big accountant was at to come by, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to coach Andre Patterson. I mean, you know, just him,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing the future and what my future can't
Speaker 1: can't be liking it. So just by talking to him, man,
Speaker 1: I was I was pumped, you know, I was kind
Speaker 1: of excited, you know, being a Viking. Did you did
Speaker 1: you know the Vikings were gonna select you after having
Speaker 1: that conversation with coach Patterson? Uh? You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: know one hundred percent. But I had a great feeling,
Speaker 1: you know about coach Patterson, you know, talking with me
Speaker 1: and and you know it just leaving to me and
Speaker 1: talking to him. It was like, man like I got
Speaker 1: to play for the Vikings, you know, I got so yeah. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of Minnesota, have you ever been to Minneapolis or
Speaker 1: seen the crowd and how how loud it gets at
Speaker 1: us being stadium? No, I haven't. I haven't even been yet,
Speaker 1: but you know, I've seen videos and it's it's a
Speaker 1: crazy Man. I'm excited, you know, being able to play
Speaker 1: there this year. Do you know what the skull chain is? Oh?
Speaker 1: It was like skull skull or something like definite we're
Speaker 1: doing this, Yes, you will. You I can't do it
Speaker 1: that much justice And hopefully we have fans this year
Speaker 1: to be able to see it real, live in action.
Speaker 1: But that's gonna get you excited to hit some quarterbacks. Oh, definitely.
Speaker 1: Gotta have a fans and that's a that's a big
Speaker 1: part of what we do. So you gotta have a fan.
Speaker 1: So one big thing that that Everson Griffin did as
Speaker 1: a Minnesota Viking, he had a sack dance. Um, he
Speaker 1: called himself to sack daddy. Um what what what can
Speaker 1: you tell Vikings fans about what you're gonna do when
Speaker 1: you hit the quarterback? You know, my my celebration is
Speaker 1: based off you know, how I feel wants something getting
Speaker 1: up at the quarterback. So I don't have a said
Speaker 1: damn sh it, but you know I'm gonna get out
Speaker 1: of that quarterback. You know I'm excited to get up.
Speaker 1: You better do some homework and get one. Get one
Speaker 1: ready for for opening day here for the NFL season.
Speaker 1: Oh definitely, I'm gonna have one ready. I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: one ready. By the looking at the Vikings defensive line,
Speaker 1: it is just and um so great the past couple
Speaker 1: of years, I mean having veterans like Win Vall, Joseph Everson, Griffin,
Speaker 1: a lot of those guys are gone now had great
Speaker 1: careers with the Vikings. Uh, it's a young group now
Speaker 1: with Andre Patterson leading from the middle of the defensive
Speaker 1: line even toil to some of the pass rushers. So, um,
Speaker 1: you gotta be raring to go. But like you're gonna
Speaker 1: have a big impact on this team. Is in your
Speaker 1: rookie season, Oh definitely, you know, and by you know,
Speaker 1: looking at those guys on film. You know, they get
Speaker 1: out to the quarterback, they played a round, they do
Speaker 1: everything good. So by me, you know, coming in, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta be able to match that. And
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know I have I'm going to
Speaker 1: do that and I'm ready excited to get there. What
Speaker 1: have your interaction has been been like with Mike Zimmer.
Speaker 1: I mean you gotta be pretty excited to have a
Speaker 1: defensive minded head coach. Oh definitely. You know, great coach,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, great mind, and the things that
Speaker 1: he brings to this team is crazy and it's awesome.
Speaker 1: And you know, just having guys know that have played
Speaker 1: in the league, you know in the past, you know,
Speaker 1: telling me about how he is as a coach man,
Speaker 1: it just gets me more fired up to you know,
Speaker 1: get up there. So Daniel Hunter was the youngest ever
Speaker 1: player to reach fifty career sacks in NFL history. That
Speaker 1: has to have you pretty pretty excited as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, just seeing the things that he's done on
Speaker 1: the field, you know, it's amazing. And coach coach Andre Pattison,
Speaker 1: you know, he knows, he knows exactly what he's talking about,
Speaker 1: and he's crazy. Um you know, just seeing Daniel Hunter
Speaker 1: do that, you know, at such a young age, you know,
Speaker 1: it gives me even more excited. Just so you know,
Speaker 1: Mike Zimmer calls him team sacks. They're not They're not
Speaker 1: individual sacks around here in Minnesota. Oh yeah, definitely. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody's a part of that that once that you know,
Speaker 1: everybody plays you know, major role and somebody getting that sex.
Speaker 1: So definitely, you know, filming that. Going back to your
Speaker 1: college career, it seemed like you were m kind of
Speaker 1: an outside linebacker, pass rusher, defensive end, pass rusher, hybrid um,
Speaker 1: what's it gonna be like? The play with a guy
Speaker 1: like Anthony Barr who has really become that type of
Speaker 1: player in the NFL and has been so successful for
Speaker 1: the Vikings his years. It's great, you know, just you
Speaker 1: know seeing him being able to, you know, did the
Speaker 1: thing that he does, you know, as a player, and
Speaker 1: being able to you know, play with him and learn
Speaker 1: the different things that he knows. Man, It's just it's crazy, man,
Speaker 1: It's so it's so exciting. Man. Well you seem excited
Speaker 1: to be to be a Minnesota Viking. It's a shame
Speaker 1: that that you don't get to shake hands and be
Speaker 1: in person with your teammates just yet. But as we said,
Speaker 1: we don't want Andre Patterson. He's like, I'm ready to
Speaker 1: get my hands on this. DJ want him because he's
Speaker 1: my guy, he's my draft pick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm excided to get up there, you know,
Speaker 1: and get to work with him. All right, DJ, thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us, and definitely a pleasure to meet you,
Speaker 1: and hopefully we'll see you pretty soon at the Vikings facility.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, sorry, you will see me soon. Appreciate you
Speaker 1: talking with him. That was Vikings fourth round pick. DJ
Speaker 1: won him with our very own Chris corshow and while
Speaker 1: we were letting that run, here's a fun fact for
Speaker 1: our listeners, Jay puts together a wonderful document of information
Speaker 1: for all of us to work off of during the show,
Speaker 1: and he had stuff about the COVID pandemic and the
Speaker 1: DJ interview and then it was just a bunch of
Speaker 1: blank space, So I thought, oh, that's all we have
Speaker 1: this week. During the interview, I scrolled down and he
Speaker 1: had the most detailed account of Patrick mahomes career and
Speaker 1: contract that I've ever seen in my entire life. And
Speaker 1: I've never felt dumber. I've never felt dumber that I
Speaker 1: couldn't scroll down to give our audience the hard work
Speaker 1: that Jay put in. But honestly, Jay, I think you
Speaker 1: deserve it for that five hundred and three reasons comments.
Speaker 1: So one percent, I will take that credit off the
Speaker 1: five hundred and three reasons four of the other top five,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to count Canalo ever as I
Speaker 1: don't I don't care about boxing. It's not a contract sport.
Speaker 1: I hate that that's even on the list. But you know,
Speaker 1: eight of the ten highest paid athletes are in the
Speaker 1: in Major League Baseball. So to see Patrick Mahomes out
Speaker 1: pace and the crazy thing to really think about because
Speaker 1: not only was his contract larger, but it is actually
Speaker 1: larger per year than Mike Trout. You never hear that.
Speaker 1: You never hear a guy in the best guy in
Speaker 1: the NFL getting more money than the best guy in
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. That's that's a pretty unique situation there.
Speaker 1: So that's me recapping Jay's recap that I didn't use
Speaker 1: during the Mahomes recap. Let's do a few final thoughts here.
Speaker 1: You know, we've got some really great stuff right now
Speaker 1: on Vikings dot Com coming up and on all of
Speaker 1: our social media. One of our favorite staff writers, Eric Smith,
Speaker 1: has a lunch break feature on CBS which they ranked
Speaker 1: their head coaches, which I always think is very funny.
Speaker 1: I don't you know, I get ranking defensive ends. I
Speaker 1: think head coach is a bit subjective. That being said,
Speaker 1: they ranked Mike Zimmer tenth, which I think is complete Horsemen,
Speaker 1: he got undersold. So Eric Smith discusses that Lindsay Young
Speaker 1: has an awesome piece breaking down how three draftees could
Speaker 1: impact the Vikings defensive line and her x as an
Speaker 1: O's feature, and Craig Peterson joins both Eric and Lindsay
Speaker 1: to break down ten key takeaways from the Virtual offseason program.
Speaker 1: If you're curious how the Vikings are preparing to play
Speaker 1: this year, keep up to date on everything we do
Speaker 1: on all our social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube,
Speaker 1: all of them boys. The offseason has slowly coming to
Speaker 1: a close. Here, any final thoughts. I think I'm just
Speaker 1: excited to see some of these young guys get going here.
Speaker 1: I mean fifteen players, I mean fifteen rookies, not even
Speaker 1: counting all the udfas. So that's my biggest thing. When
Speaker 1: they finally get in the building and seeing everything that
Speaker 1: goes on with the coronavirus is obviously the top of
Speaker 1: everybody's mind. But a lot of new players on this
Speaker 1: Vikings roster, and I'm excited on my end. This is
Speaker 1: always the time of year where it's kind of the
Speaker 1: point of no return, your past fourth of July and
Speaker 1: you know at the seasons upon us, all of the
Speaker 1: discussions we've had for months and months and months about
Speaker 1: what's going to happen, how are they going to handle
Speaker 1: offseason programs, the players, the coaches. We're at a point
Speaker 1: now where preseason is supposed to be happening, Training camp
Speaker 1: is supposed to be coming up here, and as long
Speaker 1: as things keep progressing within the league circles and the
Speaker 1: safety protocols, I'm hopeful that we will still have the
Speaker 1: preseason as needed and the season as needed. And I
Speaker 1: just want some normalcy that way with football. Let's get
Speaker 1: it back here and get back to being able to
Speaker 1: focus on something fun that we all enjoy. Yeah, as
Speaker 1: I sit here in my Vikings shirt desperately, I think
Speaker 1: I'm a pretty balanced person that doesn't live and die
Speaker 1: on sports, But it is becoming more and more apparent
Speaker 1: how much I miss them. Right after the fourth of
Speaker 1: July is when you get that tingle you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's coming here we go, like you slowly start to
Speaker 1: feel that way, and then you get that first day
Speaker 1: of August when you're like, oh, no, it feels like fall.
Speaker 1: But then it clicks in your brand like also fall
Speaker 1: means football, So I'm kind of transitioning. Obviously, We'll see
Speaker 1: how things transpire with the pandemic. It's important for us,
Speaker 1: you know, here at the Vikings and with the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Vikings podcast, we hope everybody's acting safe, taking care of
Speaker 1: your family, doing things correctly, washing your hands, wearing your mask.
Speaker 1: Just be smart, be safe, be happy, be healthy, and
Speaker 1: let's all look forward to a fun football season. And
Speaker 1: we will also look forward to next week when Jay
Speaker 1: will probably do a lot of prep work and also
Speaker 1: say something my dad's dad said, see you guys then