Speaker 1: All right, let's do it. Want to give you guys
Speaker 1: a call to day topic team. Biggest surprise of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Minnesota Vikings podcast. I'm Adam Dealing
Speaker 1: cousin Green Bay, Rusha's four Cousins Passes is he en? Hey?
Speaker 1: This is Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings. You're listening
Speaker 1: to the Minnesota Vikings podcast. Welcome to the Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: Podcast with your host Mike Wabshaw and Chris Corso. Alright,
Speaker 1: Episode two of the Minnesota Vikings podcast is here and
Speaker 1: you are listening to it. We are glad you're doing so.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Wabi from TCO Performance Center in Egan.
Speaker 1: Jam Packed episode two of the Minnesota Vikings podcast coming up.
Speaker 1: Before we preview it, let's bring in the producer, the
Speaker 1: co producer, and the co host Chris Corso. What's up man?
Speaker 1: What's going on? While we have a jam packed episode.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for our new feature and that's the
Speaker 1: voicemails that we got from the fans. This right, God,
Speaker 1: the imagination. So the listeners are most excited for the
Speaker 1: guest because it's number thirty three on the top one
Speaker 1: hundred players of twenty eighteen list. It's Adam Feeling. Yes,
Speaker 1: Vikings wide receiver. Coming up. In a moment, we'll have
Speaker 1: term of the Week. We'll get to Chrissie's new favorite segment,
Speaker 1: fan voicemails. You're gonna hear from Vikings team reporter Eric Smith.
Speaker 1: He'll tell us what he's seeing out on the practice
Speaker 1: fields later on in the show as well. But first
Speaker 1: let's get to some sound. We have two bites of
Speaker 1: the week that we want to share with you, and
Speaker 1: it begins with a little bit of levity from unsurprisingly
Speaker 1: defensive end Everson Griffin. I was just curious, though, what
Speaker 1: products do you use Amy Tips for someone like myself
Speaker 1: aspiring to get a beard like that? I use Scotch Porter.
Speaker 1: Scotch Porter. Yeah, it's a little shampoo, shampoo for your beard,
Speaker 1: and they have conditioner, and then also used their beer
Speaker 1: cream and machine they have On top of that, I
Speaker 1: put a little black castro oil in there. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: got a little routine. Then you use a wooden brush
Speaker 1: and you just brush it down. The wooden brush is
Speaker 1: um so if you use a regular brush, if it
Speaker 1: makes your beard puff out like afro, I want my
Speaker 1: beard at like after I wanted the wooden brush makes
Speaker 1: the hair lay down flat. Yes, yeah, you're welcome, all right.
Speaker 1: So you think Everson Griffin is just the sack daddy,
Speaker 1: Now he knows he knows how to how to grow
Speaker 1: and take care of a beard as well. That was
Speaker 1: Anthony Barr asking him the question in the middle of
Speaker 1: a press conference, so that was really cool. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you see that beard on Sundays, it kind of goes
Speaker 1: out of the helmets. He's got it right, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Um So a funny moment from Vikings defensive end Everson
Speaker 1: Griffin from earlier in the week. Let's go now, though,
Speaker 1: to a real moment from newly signed Vikings running back
Speaker 1: DeAngelo Henderson, who gives you a little bit a peak
Speaker 1: of what life is like for a player who's at
Speaker 1: what you would call, with all due respect, the bottom
Speaker 1: of an NFL or this is what it's like for
Speaker 1: those guys. Honestly, after I got released from the Jets, man,
Speaker 1: you know, just personally my body worked that I've been
Speaker 1: able to do in the NFL so far, it hasn't
Speaker 1: been alive. So honestly, I didn't think I was gonna
Speaker 1: get another chance. So I started applying for jobs. I
Speaker 1: was on indeed, and this applying for job built my resume.
Speaker 1: I called some guys like, Hey, who'd I need to contact?
Speaker 1: Got in touch with some good people, and when I
Speaker 1: got a call, I actually got to had an interview
Speaker 1: for a job this weekend. I had to turn down
Speaker 1: because I told him, and I got signed by the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings, So I'm sorry. He was indeed. He was
Speaker 1: searching on indeed yeah, for a sales job yep, which,
Speaker 1: as we were doing our production meeting earlier in the
Speaker 1: week four, episode two of the Minnesota Vikings podcast, co
Speaker 1: producer Jay Nelson referenced Adam Feeling sounds like Adam Feeling story, who,
Speaker 1: at one point before he became the number thirty three
Speaker 1: player on the NFL's Top one hundred list, didn't know
Speaker 1: if he would keep playing football after college. So it's crazy.
Speaker 1: And you see where Feeling is today, It's it's wild.
Speaker 1: He's our guest this week, so you'll hear more from him.
Speaker 1: But this guy, D'Angel Henderson, he was looking to move
Speaker 1: to Atlanta, Georgia to be a salesman where his girlfriend left,
Speaker 1: which is what any guy would want to do. And
Speaker 1: now he's with the Minnesota Vike trying to make this
Speaker 1: roster man. I love it. Yeah, we'll see all right.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Adam feel he is our guest today on
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings podcast. Let's bring in Adam right now.
Speaker 1: Top wide receivers that I have on my list. Obviously
Speaker 1: you got ab every year. Adam Feeland is one of
Speaker 1: my favorites in the league. Got a lot of respect
Speaker 1: for that guy. You look at the numbers and you
Speaker 1: look at how he's getting it done. Nine hundred yard games,
Speaker 1: really incredible. I see him go for one hundred yard
Speaker 1: East game. At first, I don't think he was getting
Speaker 1: the respect that he deserved. I think just because he
Speaker 1: didn't pass the eye test, but he passed the stat test.
Speaker 1: Fifty eight catches, the most in the history of the
Speaker 1: A Bell for the first six weeks. He has more
Speaker 1: than one hundred receiving yards for an eight consecutive game,
Speaker 1: tying a National Football League record. And I think it's
Speaker 1: not gonna flash. But you know, before you know, he
Speaker 1: got a honey yards on you. You don't even know how.
Speaker 1: Adam has always been a great route run. Now probably
Speaker 1: you're wit over right, Yeah, you run a lot of
Speaker 1: misdirection routes, so can make it think you're going one way,
Speaker 1: go to total ocasite. Certain things come up in the
Speaker 1: game where you have to you know, I would say
Speaker 1: improvised a little bit during the route we played the Lions.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even playing, but I'm watching. He went inside
Speaker 1: and he broke it off for his teschdown. Any other
Speaker 1: receiver probably would that went outside, and we were planning
Speaker 1: to go outside. But how the guy was planning you
Speaker 1: went inside. But to know that they make that decision
Speaker 1: real quick shows you how swatty is. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: he's running the incut right there and any breaks on
Speaker 1: the outcut, but had two guys on him, Jason mccordy,
Speaker 1: let's him get to the corner and so even and
Speaker 1: when you think you had the right call against the
Speaker 1: right receiver, he beats him all right. Adam Feeling joins
Speaker 1: him in a sort of Vikings podcast. What's it like
Speaker 1: hearing all that stuff about you? Uh sor right? I
Speaker 1: guess Yeah, it's kind of weird, isn't it. That's a
Speaker 1: little weird. Yeah, mostly weird. Yeah, um, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's nice stuff. People are saying nice things about you.
Speaker 1: But I know that you don't like to get wrapped
Speaker 1: up in that. You want to act like they don't
Speaker 1: no one respects you. You want to have that chip
Speaker 1: on your shoulder, right. Yeah, honestly, I forget about some
Speaker 1: of that stuff until I started talking about it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a little weird. You know, number thirty three on
Speaker 1: the list. I mean, you're Madden ratings ninety four. You
Speaker 1: know you you were at one point, you were a
Speaker 1: kid who just loved football and wanted to get as
Speaker 1: far as you could. You played video games, probably no
Speaker 1: doubt all this stuff is and now you're living it,
Speaker 1: You're actually living It's just it's just got to be
Speaker 1: a surreal thing. You know. I'm so focused on on
Speaker 1: my job and trying to get better and uh, you
Speaker 1: know what we got going on right now. It's it's
Speaker 1: not easy to have success in this league. So I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to make sure I'm taking care of business.
Speaker 1: But I think, you know, what i'm done playing, I'll
Speaker 1: be able to look back at things and be able
Speaker 1: to reflect a little bit. But but right now, like
Speaker 1: there's just really no time I guess to to start
Speaker 1: thinking about what you've done in the past. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then you know you, you know you. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a weird thing because it's like no one respects me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show them, I'm going to prove them wrong, right,
Speaker 1: Like that can be a mentality. But then when you
Speaker 1: get showered with praise and everyone's respecting you, like I
Speaker 1: hear them talk all the time about about that, where
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're in a better position when you're
Speaker 1: under the radar or people aren't talking about you, because
Speaker 1: then you can use that as motivation. Right, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean I think that's that's you know, really been
Speaker 1: a big part of how I got to where I
Speaker 1: am because using that motivation. Um, using that that uh,
Speaker 1: you know chip on your shoulder to to create success, right. Um.
Speaker 1: But I think there's always something. There's always somebody doubting you.
Speaker 1: There's always somebody that doesn't think that you're as good
Speaker 1: as you are or things like that. So there's always
Speaker 1: there's there's always ways to find motivation. Well I found
Speaker 1: one this morning, and um, Good Morning Football ranked their
Speaker 1: top twelve Fantasy football wide receivers. So I took a
Speaker 1: look at the at the ranking, No Vikings in there.
Speaker 1: So I responded to him with a gift of zim
Speaker 1: with his arms crossed like with the skyl on his face.
Speaker 1: So there. I mean you find stuff like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But now when you have all the noise and the
Speaker 1: attention and you're a pro athlete, isn't that what a
Speaker 1: big part of the appeal of like going home to
Speaker 1: your family and your kids, especially because your kids don't
Speaker 1: know don't know that part of you, Like they don't
Speaker 1: know who like quote unquote, they don't know who you are. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: isn't that part of the appeal of like life at home,
Speaker 1: life with your family, whether it's the off season, or
Speaker 1: you get home from a game win or lose, or
Speaker 1: you get home from a tough practice in the late
Speaker 1: dog days of training camp. Yeah, that's part of the appeal, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I even look back at yesterday or off
Speaker 1: day and just being able to watch Asher's baseball practice
Speaker 1: and and hang out my wife and the two boys.
Speaker 1: So it was it was the best day I had
Speaker 1: all week. So yeah, no, it's definitely great. I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful for my family because of that. And my wife
Speaker 1: hates when I talk about football when I come home
Speaker 1: or if I'm angry about it or or or happy
Speaker 1: about it. So it's actually been a big focus in
Speaker 1: mind this year is too. When I do come home,
Speaker 1: it's it's I don't care what I did on the
Speaker 1: field the day before. I gotta make sure that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm happy and uh and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: being in the same husband and father that I that
Speaker 1: I am in the now. You guys don't get to
Speaker 1: go home during this part of camp right now, as
Speaker 1: much as you wish you could, right right and um,
Speaker 1: and that's probably some good parts to that allows you
Speaker 1: to sort of be in the zone and all that
Speaker 1: stuff I would imagine, But it just and as great
Speaker 1: as we love TCL, we love camp here. It gives
Speaker 1: you guys a ton of resources. But it's different not
Speaker 1: being a main catle, isn't it. It is. It's a
Speaker 1: lot different. Yeah, there's definitely pros and cons to both.
Speaker 1: I'd say, um, I'd say that the biggest pro for
Speaker 1: us having a family is, you know, my wife can
Speaker 1: bring the boys out the day, Yeah, any day, and
Speaker 1: it could be at the end of practice even just
Speaker 1: to uh, you know, she didn't have to watch practice
Speaker 1: just to be able to come and the boys can
Speaker 1: run around and uh can see them for you know,
Speaker 1: twenty thirty minutes, which is fantastic. So uh, that's that's
Speaker 1: that's a big pro. And and obviously just the facility here,
Speaker 1: I mean having the resources and and um, you know,
Speaker 1: the things to take care of your body, to watch
Speaker 1: extra film or what whatever you need, it's it's here.
Speaker 1: You know, the the lunch room and things like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a special place and uh definitely
Speaker 1: helps you become a better football player. Yeah. Um, I
Speaker 1: want to ask you one football question before we let
Speaker 1: you go, and um, I like to always ask you guys,
Speaker 1: not about after we get done talking about you and
Speaker 1: and the wide receivers. I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: the corners because you're going up against them every single
Speaker 1: day in practice. Okay, so how's that group of guys? Look,
Speaker 1: how did the corners look for the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously see a lot of Trey and and Zay Um.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I think I think you know
Speaker 1: it's it's iron sharp AND's irons. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a cliche thing to say, but it's the truth.
Speaker 1: I mean, I get I get angry sometimes when I
Speaker 1: don't beat beat those guys. But you know, sometimes you guys,
Speaker 1: remember that those guys are are getting paid to play
Speaker 1: this game too, and they're they're really good football players.
Speaker 1: But it's good. I mean, it's good to be a
Speaker 1: little angry if if you're not beating them or they
Speaker 1: get they get you one time. And um, I think
Speaker 1: I think you know, that's how this team is. You know,
Speaker 1: we want to be great. We want to win every
Speaker 1: time we go against h whether it's our team or
Speaker 1: someone else. And um, and I think we practice the
Speaker 1: right way too. We're not trying to hurt each other
Speaker 1: and um, you know things like that. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm very thankful that we got really good football players
Speaker 1: on outside of the ball that that when we get
Speaker 1: to games, it almost it almost seems, um, you know,
Speaker 1: like you actually have. And I was talking to Digs
Speaker 1: about the state when we go hard and and we
Speaker 1: face the guys we face and face and practice, you know,
Speaker 1: games come a little bit easier. Yeah, for sure. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like you know, the baseball batter in the
Speaker 1: on deck circle with the donut on his bat right,
Speaker 1: and then you get into the batter's box and it's
Speaker 1: the lighter, lighter bat to swing. It feels that way. Um, well,
Speaker 1: I know you're really happy to relieve. Like we launched
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings podcast last week and you you weren't
Speaker 1: on it, and you were all over me about wanting
Speaker 1: to get into the radio to do this interview. So yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, can you ignore any more of my text? Well,
Speaker 1: there's much of this stuff I can avoid the better team,
Speaker 1: But you know, you always say it's like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: me quick, you know, two minutes. But you know, well,
Speaker 1: now I don't have dinner and have to be you know,
Speaker 1: pushing it for my meeting, because well you can skip
Speaker 1: dinner or your special teams meeting. So what's gonna be?
Speaker 1: Pick you pick one or the other. It's all good, okay,
Speaker 1: all right man, Well thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, all right, our thanks to Adam Feeling for
Speaker 1: taking some time out of a busy training camp day
Speaker 1: to come into the radio studio and tape with us.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Okay, what's next? I think we're talking
Speaker 1: some content? Yeah, who's excited about content? Content? Let's get
Speaker 1: some content? That's right. The head coach. Content, Let's get
Speaker 1: some content. He's big on content. He's always saying that too.
Speaker 1: He walks by the VN room when we're having our
Speaker 1: weekly meeting, and I just imagine what's going through his mind. Content.
Speaker 1: Let's get some content. Okay, I'm sorry. New content coming
Speaker 1: up from the Vikings Entertainment Network in twenty nineteen. You're
Speaker 1: listening to one of them. The Wobcast has turned into
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings Podcast, so that's one of the new
Speaker 1: pieces of content. Vikings game Plan is not new, but
Speaker 1: it's beginning. In fact, we've filmed the first episode of
Speaker 1: Vikings game Plan today, so you'll hear from Vikings players.
Speaker 1: You'll hear from I believe the interview is IRV Smith
Speaker 1: Junior will be the player on Vikings game Plan. Ron
Speaker 1: Johnson yours truly Pa will be batting around some topics
Speaker 1: in the final segment of Vikings game Plan. So twenty
Speaker 1: plus episodes of Vikings Game Plan. The first taping was today,
Speaker 1: so that's coming up. And Chrissy's favorite piece of new
Speaker 1: content is the fan voicemails, and we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: those right now. That's right, we got some fan voicemails
Speaker 1: I can't even like stress how appreciative we are of
Speaker 1: the fans who just reached out right away and send
Speaker 1: some voicemails to us. I mean, it's all of Actually,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that call in type deal we
Speaker 1: can call into a show like this, but right now
Speaker 1: we have the voicemails from the fans, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to this segment, and I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be way more engaging than the just reading off the
Speaker 1: fan emails. Well, and we'll still do the fan emails,
Speaker 1: so we want you all to keep sending in your
Speaker 1: emails because we like those. We use them for the
Speaker 1: mail bag, we use them for the Pick six, you know,
Speaker 1: and we'll use them on the Minnesota Vikings podcast. But
Speaker 1: we have this new technology that you know, the Will
Speaker 1: family gave us and we're gonna use it. So we
Speaker 1: want you guys to call us and leave us voicemails, opinions, questions,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. The number is nine to five two
Speaker 1: nine one eight eight four three eight nine five two
Speaker 1: nine one eight eight four three eight is the number
Speaker 1: to call and leave us a voicemail. Now we're going
Speaker 1: to do this again in future weeks and what we
Speaker 1: want from you for next week's show for fan voicemails.
Speaker 1: Is the current you know this is Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: week for the NFL to Hall Fame game is this weekend?
Speaker 1: A new class of Chinese is going in over the weekend.
Speaker 1: We've had a bunch of Vikings go in in the
Speaker 1: last decade or so, like and yours truly J. Nelson,
Speaker 1: a bunch of other people from the Vikings Entertainment Network
Speaker 1: have been able to go to Canton and take in
Speaker 1: the ceremonies, the festivities and cover it for you all.
Speaker 1: So you've seen it. So I want to know from
Speaker 1: you guys. Call into that number the current Viking most
Speaker 1: likely to become a Hall of Famer. Let us know
Speaker 1: who it is. The next one, yep, it current Viking
Speaker 1: not retired like not Jared Allen or not Adrian Peterson,
Speaker 1: who's a former Viking, the one on the roster right now?
Speaker 1: Who you think's most likely to be a Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame candidate someday let us know who you think it is.
Speaker 1: But for now, let's listen to some of the voicemails
Speaker 1: you guys sent us from last week. This first one
Speaker 1: is is awesome. Um, there's an imitation that goes on here.
Speaker 1: Everybody's talking about mcquon Treadwell, who is battling for a
Speaker 1: spot in the Vikings wide receiver room. This is van
Speaker 1: in Texas col s with the Vikings from development. Mc
Speaker 1: has been shrinning with Morpheus from the matrix to actually
Speaker 1: acquire us some ward receive about talent. No, Morpheus has
Speaker 1: been shrinning in the matrix. Who will it be the
Speaker 1: third receive king? Vikings love it? I mean, could you
Speaker 1: start off with him? So so last week we said
Speaker 1: call us in for a surprising development. That the topic
Speaker 1: was call us leave us a voicemail a surprising positive
Speaker 1: development for the Vikings. What could it be? In training camp?
Speaker 1: Howard Cosell, God bless him. He called us and left
Speaker 1: us a voicemail saying he thinks LaQuan Drudwall is going
Speaker 1: to emerge. Texas version of Howard is what we get
Speaker 1: for our first voicemail? I mean, can you beat it?
Speaker 1: I mean I don't know, can we can? We got more?
Speaker 1: We got a few more, so let's see, but let's
Speaker 1: go to number two. Let's go. Yeah. Curtis from Easton,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania in regards to the biggest surprise for the Vikings
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. I'm going to go in a different way
Speaker 1: on this one. I think twenty nineteen, I would be
Speaker 1: a big surprise if our defense when uh didn't play
Speaker 1: as well, um like when we did against the Saints
Speaker 1: and the Eagles and then the first couple of games
Speaker 1: of last year. Um, I hope we don't tend to
Speaker 1: go in that direction. Said that would be a major
Speaker 1: surprise if our defense did not play well this year.
Speaker 1: Thanks for taking my call, and you take care um
Speaker 1: Zim doesn't like that content. Yeah, that was a little
Speaker 1: didn't like that. I mean, we had some entertainment for
Speaker 1: the first one. That one. Curtis Curtis is a regular emailer.
Speaker 1: We did him in the pick six and the mail
Speaker 1: bag a lot. So Curtis is a big time fan
Speaker 1: from Easton, Pennsylvania. So and he's he's he said a
Speaker 1: surprise would be as if the Vikings defense took a
Speaker 1: step back. Yeah, and we wanted positive developments. Maybe I
Speaker 1: didn't stressed that last week. That would be a negative development.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that's going to happen. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's gonna happen either. It did happen. In the
Speaker 1: first four games the last season, things didn't go the
Speaker 1: right way, but Zim got that thing switched around. Remember
Speaker 1: we had the short week against the Rams on Thursday
Speaker 1: night and it didn't look good. We give up thirty
Speaker 1: eight points. I think we came back had a long
Speaker 1: week the following week because we played on Thursday. We
Speaker 1: didn't playa until a week from that. Next Sunday. We
Speaker 1: want to Philadelphia and we won. We want at Philadelphia
Speaker 1: thanks to a large party, to a big time defensive performance.
Speaker 1: I think the Eagles only had three points at halftime.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken that Lynvall had a defensive touchdown, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So so Zim got that thing turned around. So Curtis,
Speaker 1: you're right, that would be a surprising development for our season,
Speaker 1: but it's not going to happen. I think our defense
Speaker 1: is in good shape, all right. What's next? Number three
Speaker 1: is a positive development. And this fan talks about a
Speaker 1: player who he thinks is going to really step up
Speaker 1: this season. What's going on? Guys? This is Josh over
Speaker 1: here in Portland, Oregon represent for our Vikings. Just want
Speaker 1: to give you guys a call today because I saw
Speaker 1: you post on Twitter and topic being biggest surprise at
Speaker 1: two thou nineteen. In my opinion, I think McKenzie Alexander's
Speaker 1: going to be a guy who really finally comes into
Speaker 1: his own going into his third year. We saw a
Speaker 1: lot of marked improvement last season. Obviously, everybody who knows
Speaker 1: McKenzie knows he's really smart on and off the field.
Speaker 1: He's a competitor, he's a gym rat, he's a he's
Speaker 1: a he's a guy who's kind of nose in the books. Um,
Speaker 1: I really think that year three, McKenzie Alexander might be
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl status. Maybe I'm reaching here, Maybe I'm not.
Speaker 1: We'll see skull bikes. Love it all right, my man, McKenzie.
Speaker 1: You know, Um, Josh listed lots of things that McKenzie is.
Speaker 1: Do you know what else McKenzie is What he's a twin.
Speaker 1: He is a twin. Yeah, the twin connection. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a twin. You have twins, McKenzie is. It's another
Speaker 1: good thing about McKenzie. Crazy. Now, if McKenzie has a
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl caliber year, that's that's gonna mean real good
Speaker 1: things for our defense. It's also going to mean Curtis
Speaker 1: More from Eastern Pennsylvania's wrong because our defense will not
Speaker 1: take a step back if Mackenzie's a pro bowler, that's right.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you have the nickel corner, the number
Speaker 1: three corner on the team as a pro bowler, I
Speaker 1: think our past defense is going to be okay. So
Speaker 1: those are fan voice mails for this weekend. We want
Speaker 1: more for next week again, the number nine, five, two, nine, eight,
Speaker 1: four three eight. Let us know who you think on
Speaker 1: the current roster has the best chance to be a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame candidate someday. All right, let's talk more
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen Verizon Vikings training camp from an on the
Speaker 1: field perspective. To do that, we're going to bring in
Speaker 1: Eric Smith, the Vikings team reporter who is at every
Speaker 1: single practice and does the three Observations from camp on
Speaker 1: a regular basis. We're going to bring him in now
Speaker 1: to let give him an opportunity to tell us what
Speaker 1: is just going on, what's the flavor or what's the
Speaker 1: tenor so far of Viking Straining camp from the team's
Speaker 1: perspective on the field, Hey, guys, have the going good man,
Speaker 1: what was your like when you were grown up and stuff?
Speaker 1: What did people call you? What was your nickname. I
Speaker 1: just call you Eric all the time. My dad called
Speaker 1: me eman Eman. Okay, that makes sense. I call I
Speaker 1: call Leo big man. He's my big man. Yep, that
Speaker 1: makes sense. I get that, and then my mom gets
Speaker 1: called me e. Okay. How about your friends? Were you smitty?
Speaker 1: Because you do the you do the weekly chat in
Speaker 1: season and the occasional chat offseason, and it's sup smitty?
Speaker 1: Right yeah? Okay, so does anyone call you smitty? A
Speaker 1: few people? Yeah, not many of do you think. I
Speaker 1: think that's more of like an old school thing. People
Speaker 1: called my Grandpamitte all the time. Okay, but not really me?
Speaker 1: All right, all right, yeah, well we're gonna keep working
Speaker 1: on a nickname for you. Then, Okay, it's about time
Speaker 1: you have one, you know one, you know. The king
Speaker 1: of nicknames around here is Tom West, who's in the
Speaker 1: Vikings Public relations department, has been here for a long time,
Speaker 1: over twenty years. He knows how to come up with nicknames. Now,
Speaker 1: they're not always you know, flattering nicknames or not, so
Speaker 1: you gotta be careful. Yeah, it's a double ed sword there,
Speaker 1: so I don't think you should ask him for one,
Speaker 1: but we'll come up with a nickname, we'll try. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right. Um, first of all, the weekly chats, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when do they start up again? It just started, okay,
Speaker 1: So the one you just had was the first of
Speaker 1: them starting up again, pretty much, Yeah, for one of
Speaker 1: the twenty nine. And you're gonna do them on Tuesdays
Speaker 1: again every two day, one o'clock Viking dot Com. Okay,
Speaker 1: and folks can log on to the site ahead of
Speaker 1: time and submit questions, or they can log on right
Speaker 1: at one o'clock as you guys get going, right. They
Speaker 1: can also, as you said, use the hat taget smitty
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Yeah, and simmy questions. All right, and I'd
Speaker 1: take it all. Okay, So you do three observations from
Speaker 1: practice for the day. We've had as of this recording,
Speaker 1: four full team practices. Two of them have been in pads.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have another one today that you're gonna go
Speaker 1: out to and watch in a minute. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: two more on Thursday Friday before the annual night practice
Speaker 1: on Saturday, August third, So folks want to come out
Speaker 1: and check out the team under the lights. You can't
Speaker 1: get out here on a weekday. You can't get out
Speaker 1: here and during business hours. Come on Saturday night, watch
Speaker 1: the night practice. It's always really fun and even though
Speaker 1: it's just a practice, just a practice and air quotes,
Speaker 1: you can't help but feel like the intensity is a
Speaker 1: little bit more, maybe than than a normal practice. Right,
Speaker 1: it's a good lead up to that for preseason gag. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind kind of get that game like atmosphere. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: So you've seen a bunch of practice, you've written a
Speaker 1: bunch of observations, and let's let's not be long winded here.
Speaker 1: Let's let's give the folks. Let's hit him hard with
Speaker 1: a couple of succinct observations that you have from camp
Speaker 1: so far. What's number one? Okay, the first one, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be at the Pride if you paid
Speaker 1: attention the thought season, But I think the Viking they're
Speaker 1: going to run the ball a lot. Okay. So you've
Speaker 1: seen that in practice, you've seen that, we've heard it
Speaker 1: in words, and you're seeing it in action. Even in
Speaker 1: the installation period where the guy take their helmets off
Speaker 1: and they're kind of jogging or walking through plays, it
Speaker 1: is almost always running the ball. Okay, So you believe
Speaker 1: in the um the emphasis on running the ball. You
Speaker 1: believe in that? All right? Heavy? Okay? Dalvin? All right, yeah, Dalvin, Alexander,
Speaker 1: Alexan and Madithon had looked great. Yeah. He the first
Speaker 1: day of pads, I thought he was a standout. He
Speaker 1: had very smooth Yeah. And Kennedy Paulamalo, the running backs coach,
Speaker 1: like he'll let you have it if he doesn't like
Speaker 1: what you're doing, and he was like he was happy
Speaker 1: with Alexander Madison in the one on one pass Pearls linebackers.
Speaker 1: So I was cool, all right, number two, number two.
Speaker 1: I've been interested to watch the depth at defensive tackle. Okay,
Speaker 1: two presumptive starters are out. They're not practicing right right
Speaker 1: if Linamon pop and there's a whole host of guys.
Speaker 1: They're younger guys who are trying to kind of make
Speaker 1: their name. Um. I think all of them have been
Speaker 1: a little bit up and down. Um. I think we'll
Speaker 1: maybe find out more when the preseason game get going.
Speaker 1: But that's just an area that I've had my eye on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's a really interesting position battle, not for
Speaker 1: the starting spots because if they're healthy, it's Lindvall and
Speaker 1: it's Chamar correct Um what I think is interesting is
Speaker 1: a how many do we keep? How many tackles do
Speaker 1: we keep? Four? Five? If it's If it's four, you know,
Speaker 1: that's a little light. The competition's super intense. Probably gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. I would think, maybe you think about it
Speaker 1: being five. If that's the case. The real battle is
Speaker 1: not who's who's who's number three? Who's number five? That's
Speaker 1: the real battle because you're gonna get a good player
Speaker 1: that you're gonna try to sneak on through waivers onto
Speaker 1: the squad practice squad, right, you know, and you might
Speaker 1: not be able to do that. So that's the real
Speaker 1: position battle. Who's four and five? Correct, not who's three
Speaker 1: and four. We made some predictions last week, and we
Speaker 1: talked about Jalen Holmes, We talked about Jalil Johnson, who
Speaker 1: actually spoke to the media today. Yeah, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of candidates. Yeah, who stood out to you And
Speaker 1: I've always I wrote about him in the spring, but
Speaker 1: Hercules there, you know, he's flashed here and there. Um,
Speaker 1: you kind of have my eye on him going forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Zima likes him too, yep. Um, all right, number three. Uh,
Speaker 1: the kicking game had been an area of focus. Um,
Speaker 1: kind of with the long knappers and multiple holders I
Speaker 1: get in practice. Um in the chat, people are freaking
Speaker 1: out about it, but it's early, you know, there's a
Speaker 1: long way to go. I think as long as they
Speaker 1: get it cleaned up in the preseason and they're ready
Speaker 1: to go for week one, then it'll be fine. I'm
Speaker 1: not sweating Dan Bailey, No, not at all. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not sweating that. I think you said the word. The
Speaker 1: word is the operations. That's what the key is is
Speaker 1: the synergy among the kicker, holder and long snapper, you know,
Speaker 1: and being sharp in those other areas besides just kicking
Speaker 1: the ball. That's what has to be looked at and
Speaker 1: analyzed here during the preseason. I think it figuring out
Speaker 1: who the long snapper is going to be as we
Speaker 1: go along, and it's getting that person comfortable with Matt
Speaker 1: Wile and then getting Dan comfortable with him, and it'll
Speaker 1: get better. And we love Kevin McDermott. I mean he
Speaker 1: was a long snapper last year and it's not like
Speaker 1: we had like bad snaps last year. I mean Kevin
Speaker 1: McDermott is as tough as nails. Lost finger keeps playing
Speaker 1: or part of a finger keeps playing, so we don't.
Speaker 1: We're not a problem with them. It's just there are
Speaker 1: two in camp, so by definition it's a position to watch,
Speaker 1: right because we drafted the other one, Austin Cutting from
Speaker 1: Air Force. Yeah. No, big fan of Kevin Matine toughness rating. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm backed on the team. Yeah. He left a piece
Speaker 1: of his finger on the field and kept going. I
Speaker 1: mean I'd be in the fieldal position, crawled up. We
Speaker 1: always ask him for shugs to come take me off
Speaker 1: the field, take care of me, all right, anything else,
Speaker 1: no to take that h get back to work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So am I all right? Man, thanks for coming into
Speaker 1: the podcast. We appreciate it. Cool. Thank guys. All right.
Speaker 1: So that's Eric Smith, Viking Steam reporter, giving us the
Speaker 1: lowdown on camp. Now, you and I have been at
Speaker 1: every practice too, Chris, that's right. Like you see Inside
Speaker 1: Training Camp live NFL Network going around all different team
Speaker 1: training camps, and like the Cleveland Browns have Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: and O b J and a new head coach, and
Speaker 1: it's just like Super Splashy and the Dallas Cowboys. Ezekiel
Speaker 1: Elliott's holding out and Dak Prescott is he gonna get
Speaker 1: a new deal or not. Amari Cooper and is he
Speaker 1: gonna get a new deal or not? Like big big
Speaker 1: Newsy Meaty, the Oakland Raiders that are on hard knocks
Speaker 1: and John Gruden and Mike Mayock and in the trading
Speaker 1: fans and a hot take. Yeah, Like there's just like
Speaker 1: there's these these things that are just so like you
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about when you go to that
Speaker 1: team's camp. Yep, like the Vikings in a positive way,
Speaker 1: we kind of don't have that. Coach Zimmer loves to
Speaker 1: be the team not being talked. Yeah, and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying we're a boring team, but not by any stretch.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of really good players and we
Speaker 1: have a quarterback, um you know who had a good
Speaker 1: season last year, but the team's record wasn't good. So
Speaker 1: a lot of people are like should like was that
Speaker 1: a good contract or not. It's like, it's not like
Speaker 1: we're boring. There's nothing to talk about with us, and
Speaker 1: you shouldn't come and watch training camp. You should, But
Speaker 1: I'm just saying like we're not like we're not up
Speaker 1: there with the Browns, the Raiders, the Cowboys with those juicy,
Speaker 1: sexy storylines. So it's kind of Camps kind of got
Speaker 1: that like just that businesslike whole hum feel to it.
Speaker 1: So far, I'm that I'm gonna have a hot take
Speaker 1: here and say last year we were that, oh for sure,
Speaker 1: cousins first year, Yeah, first year at the new facility,
Speaker 1: coming off the Nfldan richardson big signing. I mean we
Speaker 1: had all those flashy things coming off such a good
Speaker 1: season the year before. This year, I love it. I
Speaker 1: think you have a second season with Kirk here, which
Speaker 1: is going to be night and day, with his receivers,
Speaker 1: with the offense, with Kubiak alongside Stefanski, I think everything
Speaker 1: working together. I just like what's going on here so
Speaker 1: much more than last year. Now. One thing that Eric
Speaker 1: talked about his first observation was, you know, he believes
Speaker 1: in the team emphasizing the run like he sees the
Speaker 1: team doing that. I love the practice. That was a
Speaker 1: great first. A big part of that is going to be,
Speaker 1: you know, if you go back and look at Gary
Speaker 1: Kubiak in his history and this offense, there's lots of
Speaker 1: two tight end formations right right, And I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna use a fullback a lot. And I think Zim
Speaker 1: wants to be a physical team, and that includes being
Speaker 1: a physical offense with your offensive line, your tight ends
Speaker 1: at fullback, running the ball, establishing the run, and being
Speaker 1: able to run. So two tight ends, we know we
Speaker 1: got Rudy. The second one a lot of the times
Speaker 1: is gonna be IRV Smith. That's right, all right. We
Speaker 1: have Irv who's going to be on the podcast next week.
Speaker 1: Next week, which is going to be super cool. And
Speaker 1: part of the tie in for that is that we
Speaker 1: have a preseason game next week. And where is that
Speaker 1: preseason game. It is being played in New Orleans, where
Speaker 1: he grew up, and that's IRF Smith's hometown, and that's
Speaker 1: where his dad played right in the NFL. And it's
Speaker 1: gonna be on his birthday. So episode three of the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings podcast. Is that a trifecta or is that
Speaker 1: four things or five? I don't know. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty cool because we're gonna have Irv in here and
Speaker 1: get his dad in here, and we're gonna talk to
Speaker 1: those two about it. As before. You know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be playing a preseason game, which is hard hard to believe.
Speaker 1: That's games a little a week away. I mean that's
Speaker 1: crazy to think, like all you Vikings fans should get
Speaker 1: excited because games are coming. It's awesome. Um, okay, term
Speaker 1: of the day is hot route. You hear quarterbacks, receivers,
Speaker 1: offensive coordinators, head coach coaches during press conferences, postgame interviews.
Speaker 1: They talk about a hot route and we could explain
Speaker 1: it to you. We could do an okay job. Who's
Speaker 1: somebody who could like do a really good job. How
Speaker 1: about like a wide receiver. A wide receiver. I mean
Speaker 1: we have a few of them, but we got a
Speaker 1: really good one. There's one guy, well he was on
Speaker 1: the podcast earlier. Oh yeah, we did it and explain
Speaker 1: what a hot route is, all right, the infamous hot route. UM.
Speaker 1: I think it really became popular from a movie and
Speaker 1: people really wanted to figure out what the actual hot
Speaker 1: route was. Um. But there's every offense has a different,
Speaker 1: uh type of hot route. UM honestly, UM, I've been
Speaker 1: in a lot of different offenses that have treated it
Speaker 1: completely different. Um. But but really now, in our offense,
Speaker 1: a hot route is really just just getting your eyes
Speaker 1: ready if it's if it's a full on pressure look
Speaker 1: and uh, you know that you gotta get you know,
Speaker 1: in aud of your break quicker. Um, you gotta get
Speaker 1: to your break quicker. Um. I mean you gotta make
Speaker 1: sure that you're you're, you're available for the quarterback to
Speaker 1: get it out quickly so he doesn't get sacked. But
Speaker 1: I've also been in offenses where it completely switches your route. Um,
Speaker 1: so if if a blitz comes off your side, you
Speaker 1: gotta run quick to the flat. Um. So there's different
Speaker 1: definitely a lot of different variations, but um, but they
Speaker 1: all they all find a way to be able to
Speaker 1: basically just protect the quarterback from getting smacked. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go, let's get out of here with one more thing.
Speaker 1: And it's something that we're excited about here at the
Speaker 1: Vikings Entertainment Network and it's another example of new programming
Speaker 1: from the ven. It's the Vikings Voyage, which is a
Speaker 1: never before seen type of content here from the Vikings
Speaker 1: Entertainment Network. Folks really love behind the scenes stuff like
Speaker 1: they like they love ninety six Questions with Brian Robinson
Speaker 1: when they get to see a personal side of players
Speaker 1: and a behind the scenes look as a player grabs
Speaker 1: a mic and goes around the locker room, something that
Speaker 1: we wouldn't normally do yeah, Okay, folks love our meat.
Speaker 1: The Pick series where we go behind the scenes on
Speaker 1: draft day with the GM the head coach. Our draft
Speaker 1: pick lands at the airport and we're with them. We
Speaker 1: got them miked up and we got cameras on the
Speaker 1: phone calls. People love that stuff. Okay, Well this the
Speaker 1: Voyage is that time's a hundred. The Voyage is in
Speaker 1: house network Vikings Entertainment Network type hard knocks or all
Speaker 1: or nothing type of programming. And I've had people emailing
Speaker 1: me asking me, hey, and I see the Browns are
Speaker 1: doing this thing. I see the Chargers are doing this thing.
Speaker 1: Are the Vikings gonna do it? Yeah, We're doing it.
Speaker 1: And it started today. It started this week with the
Speaker 1: first episode of The Voyage. That's what it's called a
Speaker 1: debut on the Vikings YouTube channel and on the Vikings
Speaker 1: Facebook page. And it's going to end up being on
Speaker 1: all of our digital properties. It's going to be on
Speaker 1: our social media channels, it's gonna be on dot com,
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna be on the app, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: everywhere you're gonna notice it. It's the Voyage, and there's
Speaker 1: it's it's multiple episodes throughout the season going behind the
Speaker 1: scenes with players and coaches and staff of the first
Speaker 1: one featured a lot of Dalvin Cook. Did you get
Speaker 1: a chance to watch it, Chrissy, Yes, I was just
Speaker 1: gonna feed to that sound bite because we want to
Speaker 1: give the fans a little bite of it here on
Speaker 1: the MVP. So let's hear Dalvin Cook as he enters
Speaker 1: the facility for the first time. Rights from a year
Speaker 1: ago to today. I mean, it's gonna be a long offseason.
Speaker 1: I'll day that the Kings of the North, the Chicago Bears,
Speaker 1: beat the Minnesota Vikings and end their season twenty four ten. Chicago,
Speaker 1: it's Viking football. Now. You always carry it because you
Speaker 1: gotta know what you gotta build from and what's the
Speaker 1: goal that we headed to and how we could have
Speaker 1: got down and the things that we could have did
Speaker 1: last year. So you always carried in your back pocket.
Speaker 1: But you know it's a fresh start, unless a new beginning,
Speaker 1: low begin, a new identity for this team that we
Speaker 1: got to find out. But you know, you always keep
Speaker 1: that in your back pocket that you know that's what'll
Speaker 1: be left off that and you know that's what we
Speaker 1: got to build fund. You know you're gonna try to
Speaker 1: estabis ode identity and what we want to be and
Speaker 1: what we're looking towards. And it's early, you know, obviously early,
Speaker 1: but you know because them being on a smart physical
Speaker 1: you know, people that make good decisions on the field
Speaker 1: and off the field. That's type of teaming off. So
Speaker 1: it's crazy to go, man's grady to go. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: We've got a couple couple of things we need to
Speaker 1: talk about. You know, every year in the NFL, things change,
Speaker 1: a lot of different staff changes, a lot of different
Speaker 1: player changes. So I want to go through that real quick. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know the guys all right, you already know
Speaker 1: some fans and Gary Kubacks. It's just name coach, offensive advisor,
Speaker 1: Rick Dennison, the words Gary, stand up Gary, so they
Speaker 1: all see you, all right, that's Gary Brick Jennison is
Speaker 1: right there, all right. M Kennedy, y'all know. Brian Periani
Speaker 1: right there, he's coaching tight ends. Thank Fubiak is coaching
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks. Okay, Drew Petson, you know, he's moved to receivers,
Speaker 1: Andrews still with the offensive line. So that's the offensive guys,
Speaker 1: all right. Defensive guys are all the same, right, and
Speaker 1: then special teams you got a new special teams coordinator,
Speaker 1: bar One maloof spanning right back there. All right, so
Speaker 1: you know, everybody says we want to win the division,
Speaker 1: everybody says we want to win a super Bowl. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give him some more specific things where if we're
Speaker 1: good in these areas that uh, that we'll have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. All right, So that's just a
Speaker 1: little taste. That was cool. Yeah, that's really cool. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's a little taste like in that
Speaker 1: first step in the car with Dalvin Cook. I mean,
Speaker 1: does it get better? Yeah, that's cool the way the
Speaker 1: way with Van does it in Nate Vaughan is the
Speaker 1: one head in the project does a great job with
Speaker 1: all this stuff. Is you're in the car with Dalvin
Speaker 1: for the first day of the offseason program. Ye, and
Speaker 1: then you end up going into the team meeting room
Speaker 1: where head coach Mike Zimmer is introducing the new coaches
Speaker 1: to all the players and is talking about how the
Speaker 1: season begins anew for us. Right now, forget about last
Speaker 1: year and let's go forward to twenty nineteen. So really
Speaker 1: awesome accessing the stage. It's awesome access. You guys are
Speaker 1: gonna love it. It's called The Voyage. It's produced by
Speaker 1: the Vikings Entertainment Network. Many more episodes coming up throughout
Speaker 1: the course of the season. All Right, that's gonna do it.
Speaker 1: For episode number two of the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Our
Speaker 1: thanks to Eric Smith, Vikings team reporter, for joining, as
Speaker 1: well as Vikings wide receiver Adam Thalan who was our
Speaker 1: guest today, and our thanks to everyone behind the scenes
Speaker 1: at the Vikings Entertainment Network for producing the Minnesota Vikings Podcast.
Speaker 1: Episode number three of the podcast coming up next week.
Speaker 1: It's going to feature IRV Smith Junior, and we're also
Speaker 1: going to preview the Vikings first preseason game at the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints. That and many more things coming up
Speaker 1: on episode number three of the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. For now,
Speaker 1: I'm a be signing off school vits