Friday Mailbag: The Combine is upon us

Offseason moves are coming soon and fans have questions

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! Next week we’ll have a LOT to talk about with the NFL Combine coming up. Purple Insider will be there, so keep your eyes out for the coverage.

Alright, let’s dive in…

Wade M…Any mid-to-late round QBs that the Vikings might look into at the Combine?

I’m slightly intrigued by Cole Payton of NDSU. He put up incredibly efficient passing numbers and was a fantastic runner in college. The quality of competition is always going to be a discussion but if you’re looking to draft and develop a mid-to-late round QB, it might as well be somebody who has some athletic traits and a sample of success at a certain level rather than a guy who played a ton of football and has no mystery about them at all.

Outside of that, Haynes King might have a really funny Taysom Hill comparison in there.

I’m just not that intrigued with project QBs in general.

SKOL_UK…I might’ve missed something from last year, but didn’t the Vikings draft a tight end last year? How come he hasn’t seen the field yet?

Gavin Bartholomew. Suffered an injury during rookie minicamp and was out for the season. I believe he was getting healthy enough to practice by the end of the year. Tough break because even in one practice that we saw from him, you could see some natural hands. It will be like gaining a draft pick for this year, I suppose.

Scott H… Even though without JA we’d start to get very thin at WR, what would your thoughts be on slapping the tag on him and looking for a trade? I thought about shipping him and pick 18 away to try and move up in the draft to land either Love or Downs. I know Addison is great, but with his off field issues, and the fact we won’t be able to afford his next contract, makes me think a trade wouldn’t be the worst idea. Do you think that package would be enough to move up to get one of those guys? Do you think it would be a good move?

You don’t have to tag Addison. He’s on his rookie contract this year and they can exercise their fifth-year option for the following season. The problem with trading Addison, unless you’re getting a haul, is that he’s very cheap this year.

I’m not convinced that trading a WR2 away to move up for a safety or running back is a great value play, even if those guys are projected to be game changers. It seems like a high price to pay when the positional valuable is questionable to begin with. That said, if someone was willing to give a second-round pick for Addison or something like that, then it would be worth it. Heck, Arizona traded a first-round pick for Hollywood Brown a few years ago. You never know.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to trade up for those guys unless we were only talking about a few spots and the price wasn’t that high. Historically speaking trades up for immediate needs are pretty risky and not often worth the price. Top prospects can falter too.

noodlesintheface… What are your thoughts on the idea of replacing onside kicks with a 4th and 13? It seems like something that’d instead favor teams who have a stud QB, and the current onside kick rules seem to make the play a farce. Between current rules, old rules, 4th and 13, or something else, how would you fix onside kicks (specifically in the Vikings’ favor) if you could do that?

I don’t need them to do something totally ridiculous. The fourth-and-13 thing is cartoonish to me. It’s something you’d do on a arcade game. I’m all for player safety but I’m not convinced that the onside kick ever really needed changing. If they just went back to it, we’d only be talking about a handful of plays per year.

If the stipulation to a resolution to the onside kick was that it needed to adhere to player safety, then how about having the players line up closer and require the ball to only go five yards? Maybe that would reduce the amount of full speed ahead and still create the mad scramble.

Here’s another question: Do we need onside kicks to work more often? I’m not totally sure that I do.

Roger N…Are we downplaying AVG’s injury history? Are the Vikings looking for insurance/backup for him?

Fair point. He came to the Vikings in 2024 with some injury issues in the past and was banged up in 2025. That has to be somewhat of a concern considering his age. It would be wise to find more depth at that position than just UDFAs. The hard part about that is money. Do you spend $10 million on somebody in free agency as a rotational rusher? Leonard Floyd can still get after it a little bit. Kyle Van Noy maybe? Josh Uche?

Otherwise spending a third-round pick on the edge might not be a bad idea. I’m just not sure of the approach because those guys are generally pretty expensive.

Brent O… Is anything going to be run differently from a team perspective, at the combine with Kwesi no longer on staff? Have any process changes come up since the change was made?

I assume that everything else will run the same way. KOC and Flores presumably will run things with the coaches inside the meetings with players and I probably Mike Sholiton their college scouting director and other front office folks will be involved. I’ve never really looked into exactly how they do all that stuff with the prospects.

The other big part is meeting with agents, which I would assume KOC and Rob Brzezinski would head that up. I’m guessing Rob would have been in on that in the past anyway.

Matt D… What’s your opinion on Tua as an option for the Vikings? Luke Braun has been pushing that recently and I am completely out on that. Even aside from the Flores relationship and the fact that he really should not be playing football anymore with his concussion history, I don’t think he is a better QB or a better fit for the offense than the other starting QB options out there.

No offense to any other opinion-haver out there but Tua makes zero sense. If they cut him, he isn’t coming to Minnesota, for starters. He’s been bad recently. He has a very obvious ceiling. He has a mortifying injury history. I don’t see why any team would sign up for that.

Dermo Man…How much does the combine actually change things for draft prospects. I think there have been some “combine winners and losers” in recent years. How did they actually fare when they got to the NFL. Maybe Chris Trapasso could comment on this.

I’ve always heard about the Combine that teams are looking for confirm things that they think they already think. If they believe that a tight end is a good enough athlete to play in the NFL and then the guy runs a 5.1 40-yard dash, it’s going to shift their view. Or if they had character concerns and went to the Combine and sat down with someone and really liked what they heard, maybe they might shift on that.

Honestly, a lot of that is fool’s gold. Analytics expert Kevin Cole showed a few years ago that there is an inverse relationship between receivers putting up huge 40 times and succeeding because somebody will fall in love with their speed and lose sight of the shortcomings. I’m sure that’s happened a lot with pass rushers and DTs too. Everyone looking for the next Danielle Hunter is still struggling to find him a decade later.

Plus, guys in those meetings are well trained to answer all the questions the “right” way.

The times where it works out are probably much more where a guy produces like crazy in college and there’s worries about his athleticism but the Combine proves that he’s actually fine. I’m thinking about Harold Fannin. He was a MAC guy who didn’t have great size but put up solid speed numbers and still got drafted in a decent spot.

Ben… Talk me into the idea that if the Vikings draft an RB ( maybe Love) that KOC would actually use him.

I’m not saying that I believe the Vikings have run the ball effectively with KOC or that they haven’t ignored it for long stretches too often with him as the head coach but when have they had somebody special back there? Old Dalvin Cook. Old Aaron Jones. Alex Mattison. Ty Chandler? They could have given it to Mason more, sure. He’s just a solid player.

If they had somebody that was ripping teams to shreds like Jahmyr Gibbs, I bet he’d use that guy a lot more.

In terms of drafting one, here’s the best argument: Most of the top 10 RBs this year were first or second-round draft picks. De’von Achane was a third rounder. Not shockingly for a position that relies greatly on athleticism, the top picks are often more effective. The idea that you can “find a running back anywhere” doesn’t really hold up that great to scrutiny.

Does that mean they should trade up for Love? Probably not. If he’s there at 18, I can dig it. Price in the second round or Coleman in the third make a lot of sense to me. They need some jolt.

Jason…I keep seeing Hockenson come up as a very likely to be released guy. Is there any hope they just renegotiate or is this a foregone conclusion?

The cap hit is very similar between restructuring and cutting him. I can’t make much sense of why they’d get rid of him unless there are physical concerns. I don’t think he’s changed that much. It looks more like circumstances to me. Bad QB play makes everyone look bad.

Matt R…. I have great respect for Aaron Schatz and his opinions.
I know he prefaced the comments with “likely never going to happen” but I disagree with some of his takes on JJ McCarthy needing a change of scenery. The Sam Darnold shadow comment in particular. While it was (obviously) the wrong move to let him walk, I don’t think Vikings fans are that broken hearted over this. I watched Sam play in the playoffs and was both happy for him and highly entertained by his play. Some Vikings fans see JJ as a major root cause of Darnold leaving, but I put that on KOC and the team brass, not JJ. It makes little sense to jettison him now (which Schatz seems to agree with), but I don’t see some shadow thing. Now if Sam had won in the playoffs in ‘24 and you let him walk, that’s a different story. I don’t think JJ is the starter next year pending starting QB “X” health, but I don’t think he will live in Darnold’s shadow. What say you?

I respect Mr. Schatz very much myself.

I don’t speak for Vikings fans but I can’t say that I found the reaction to Sam winning to be along the lines of “it’s all good!” There was a lot of rationalizing and coping with stuff like, “we wouldn’t have won anyway.” Which is some real sad stuff, in my view. The way the defense was playing, you’d have no shot? You wouldn’t at least like to know? What if you got the right matchup? What if the other team’s QB got hurt?

Anyway, of course McCarthy will live in the shadow of what happened with Darnold. How could he not? He will always be the guy that a franchise chose over the Super Bowl-winning quarterback. That’s going to be brought up forever. Unless he turns this into a Diggs-for-Jefferson trade that works out brilliantly for both. That seems like a longshot now.

Historically speaking, it’s probably fine to move on if they want to do that. We can talk about how he’s young and there’s a chance that he turns it around but quarterbacks who perform at this level through 10 starts — especially on a good team — rarely turn it around in short order. It’s my view that McCarthy could be a very good QB in three years. Ryan Tannehill is a good comp. In 2026? I’m not sure you can solve extreme accuracy issues along with problems commanding the offense in a couple months of throwing routes on air.

We’re going to find out what they really think but I might suggest that some folks need to start being realistic about this situation.

Bill B…. Apologies for being deep in the draft weeds but how would you rate Vikings needs at OC, CB, S, WR, RB, TE, OG ? How would your opinions change if they were to trade/release Hockenson, Jones, Addison? Also it seems to me the value points in this draft is second round, agree?

No apologies for being too FOOTBALL, Bill. That’s what we do here, brother.

Ranking the draft needs does depend heavily on free agency. If they wanted to draft a center rather than pay one, then it’s a top need. It’s not likely to be the first-round pick though because nobody in this draft seems to be a first-round prospect.

I also always think receiver is a top need. I’d probably go C, WR, S, DT, CB, RB.

I’m not sure much changes if they release those guys. Tight end would come into play at that point but there’s only really one first-round prospect.

The value of every draft is always going to be the higher you pick. If you mean that you can probably get one of the better RB, safety or center prospects in the second, that’s certainly true.

Adam B… Loving the pods getting the other NFC North team’s views this last week! My question is how different do you see the draft trading strategy being now that Kwesi and his specific models are out and Brez/KOC/Flores are running the show? More sticking and picking? More trading around to go for particular targets? YOLO wild moves as everyone is feeling the heat?

Thanks! I’ll keep those going with other 2026 opponents too.

I’m not sure I can find any evidence of Kwesi’s “models” being used since 2022. They didn’t win trades. They drafted for immediate needs. They didn’t clearly focus on premium positions. They didn’t draft players that crushed it with production. They didn’t draft young players. It was a very run-of-the-mill approach. And the fact that they didn’t stack draft capital was basically the last analytical thing they did as a team when he was here.

I don’t think Rob Brzezinski is going to let them go completely buck wild and start trading 2027 first-rounders to move up a few spots or something like that but I expect them to focus very heavily on immediate needs. We could see an aggressive approach to trade up if they need to move up a few spots to get a particularly player.

The way this thing looks on paper right now though, it feels like moving down a few slots is more prudent if possible.

Gary A…What are your thoughts on signing Carson Wentz for another year. He knows the system and did okay before getting hurt.

I’m all set with the Carson Wentz experience. They need either a brand new starter or very real competition. He’s a pure backup and he’s now coming off his 97th career injury.

Patrick G…A lot of people seem to want Kirk back, but the only QB’s in the history of the league that could still really throw all the passes, including the deep balls, at 38 or older are Peyton Manning (he fell off a cliff at 39), Brady, Brees, Favre, Rodgers, and Warren Moon. Can Kirk still run KOC’s offense to KOC’s full vision? I’m getting more and more on board with the Derek Carr possibility; 3 years younger, more likely to still have the deep ball, hopefully back to full health with a year off. Age & physically he’s 2023 Kirk with a year’s rest. He’s young enough he could potentially be a 2-3 year bridge if necessary, old enough to not totally close the door on JJ, even if he needs 2 years behind the scenes developing to fix his mechanics, footwork, timing, and touch.

A lot of people want Kirk back? What’s a lot? A few social media folks desperate for replies?

Kirk physically would be a huge concern. The velocity on the ball is not the same and he still looked like he was straining to run routine play-action with the bum Achilles. There’s a very clear ceiling on that.

I could at least see Carr having a really, really good season. He’s done it before and isn’t that old. I am concerned about when he said, “am I healthy?” on his podcast when talking about a return. Like, dude, do you not know if you are healthy?

But in terms of fit and “still can sling it” factor, Carr makes the most sense if you’re going the old guy route.

Dan…Did you change your mind about Geno Smith? Based on how you talked about him a couple of weeks ago as a potentially entertaining competent downfield passer in KOC’s offense, I would have expected you to put him somewhere in your QB rankings, but it seems that you’ve relegated him to “Option 5” as a guy who merely provides some competition for McCarthy.

Geno’s numbers throwing downfield in the past have been downright prolific but the issue that I ran into when researching his recent performance is that he barely ever plays under center and he gets sacked at a horrifying rate. He’s also old. He’s going to be 36 next season. After getting sacked 105 times over the last two years, there would seem to be a large physical risk of getting him too.

If they wanted JJ to win a competition, it might be worth it. For a starter, there are better options.

Arin J… Matt how can Brian Flores take the defense to the next level, minus Harrison smith. To me Dexter Lawrence would be a great addition(not likely) how can they get to be as strong as Seattle?

More good players? Flores has been squeezing every bit of blood from the stone over the last three years but if they wanted to become as good as Seattle they would need to have zero weaknesses. That would start for me with the back end. They have a front seven capable of playing as well as anyone with maybe even a solid defensive tackle addition but the secondary needs a difference-making safety (if Harry retires) and coverage depth. Last year they got lucky having Isaiah Rodgers and Byron Murphy Jr. play as much as they did.

That’s where getting a first-round cornerback or safety fits. I’m not opposed to them picking someone like Dillon Thieneman or Emmanuel McNeil-Warren high because that position is so big in Flores’ defense. It may not be a “premium” position by the standards of what the NFL pays for it but the teams that have top safeties are never sad about that.

Walt K…Hey, Matt. With KC restructuring Mahomes’s contract, the Vikings now stand as the team with the least amount of cap room. From what I understand, many current contracts have been structured to make it easy to free up space so the team may not be in as a dire position as it seems. What moves would you make as far at restructures and cuts that would allow to keep or build up a talented roster?

They can make about $100 million in space if they did all the restructuring possible. It’s definitely not as dire as it looks.

OverTheCap lists these as the possible restructures:

Jefferson ($18 million)

Allen ($8 million)

Darrisaw ($9 million)

Greenard ($12 million but an extension is possible)

Hockenson ($9 million)

Murphy Jr. ($11 million)

Van Ginkel ($11 million)

Fries ($9 million)

You get the drift. Plus they can extend O’Neill and lower his cap hit. Same for Cashman.

Florian K…The combine seems to have four main elements. Players go through on-field drills and testing, the medical exams and the interviews players get with teams. The fourth is the behind the scenes talks between front offices, coaches and agents. Out of those four could your rank the level of importance? I’d say the medical, front office/agent convos, interviews and then the underwear olympics. Personally I think game tape carries more weight than 40 times, for the most part.

I would still have the testing No. 1. You are not wrong that the tape is important but getting specific measurements allows teams to cross compare these players historically and use the date to determine whether guys fit the specs that their coaches are looking for. If it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t do it to his level.

The front office/agent conversations along with other discussions that would not ever, ever, ever, never, ever be tampering are the biggest thing. It’s like a convention where everyone gets together and starts to shape their plans going forward.

Medicals are certainly big but generally you only have a handful of guys where that’s going to matter.

The interviews would be last for me. They are probably worse than not talking to the guys at all.

Speedi…I keep hearing KOC is on hot seat which i find hard to believe. He has delivered seasons way above expectations. Since you are up close does he strike you as a person who will get better as a coach. My from afar view is driven and smart and knows his shortcomings better than us fans.

Way above expectations? I do not think he’s performed way above expectations when there is a goose egg in the playoff victory category.

In two of his seasons, everything has gone right and they overperformed vs. the roster talent and he rightfully got a ton of credit. In two seasons, they did not weather the storm well enough to make the postseason and he deserves criticism.

His passing game clearly works when it’s run correctly and his culture within the building is admirable. He knows how to get buy-in from everyone and he didn’t completely melt last year when things were going bad. That all projects well as a coach that you want to have over many years and allow for many bites at the apple rather than just firing him to fire how. The potential certainly exists for him to continue to grow as many young coaches have.

That said, the NFL cleared out half its coaches this offseason. Patience is at an all-time low. You can already get the sense that the fanbase is restless and when you’ve been at the center of letting a SB champion QB walk in favor of a kid who you couldn’t elevate (right away, anyway), the pressure is going to be there.

So I’m not a believer in hiring and firing coaches if they generally push the needle in the right direction but there are no current coaches who have kept their job for five years without a playoff win that are coaching right now.

SKOL_UK…. What do you think of this mock draft I made?? I think it filled the most critical holes while providing adequate depth to other places. Please let me know what you think!

You’re fired!

Kidding. There are crazy differences of opinion on McNeil-Warren. The other day, Daniel Jeremiah had him 13th in his mock draft. You’re getting him here at 49. That’s wild.

I’d have to give you high marks for rebuilding the secondary and grabbing a potential starting center and another weapon.

After the Combine we should have a bit of a better sense at where certain guys are going to slot in.

TheDude… Are you still ;high on Murray as our vet QB? Also, given there are leaks coming out of Vikings land about JJ, do you think it is a way of prepping the fans from moving on from him (not saying they will cut him, just saying he will be riding the pine next year)?

Following up... What would be your top 5 (in order of who you would want) of the vet QBs... 1 minor comment from me is I would understand the interest in Mac Jones, just think the draft comp might be too high for us..

Every day I become more convinced that Murray is the way to go. When he had a good supporting cast, he was fantastic and when he had a decent offensive system (2024) that asked him to play like an under-center, play-action QB much more, he was good despite having a bleh team.

He’s pretty accurate, entertaining/exciting and has a ceiling of a top-12 QB (which he has been twice in his career). There’s nobody else who can say that other than Carr.

Do you need to be prepped? McCarthy has the same quarterback rating through 10 starts as Christian Ponder. The idea that they could be looking for a starting QB with a veteran locker room and coach under pressure shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Top five vet QBs would be Murray, Carr, Daniel Jones, Mac Jones and…that might be it. Malik Willis would be No. 2 if we count him as a veteran.

I understand the interest in Mac Jones and I’m far from a hater. I just think that would be a lot like bringing back Kirk. The ceiling is limited.

Jake J… Looks like Bradley Chubb will be available. Thoughts on him being a Viking?

It would be good for depth purposes. The problem is that other teams might be willing to pay a lot more for a starting edge rusher than the Vikings to use him as a rotational guy.

Mitch L… Have you heard any word on who JJ McCarthy has hired as a QB for the offseason? I assume he has worked with one before, or am I wrong? He has a lot to work on and this offseason will be incredibly important, so I would think he has tried to hire the best one available. Does KOC give QB’s recommendations for an offseason coach?

I haven’t heard anything about that. He did work with a guy before who made himself look silly on the internet midway through the season, if you recall that stupid “controversy.” He obviously needs someone who is proven in the NFL space.

I would figure that KOC would have given him recommendations. Although KOC couldn’t get him to not dance into the end zone, so I’m not sure if he’d take that or not.

I’m certainly a believer in the QB guru but just because I can’t help myself: Anthony Richardson used the same guy that Josh Allen did last offseason.

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