Friday(ish) Mailbag: GM search, QB competition etc.

Vikings fans have questions about the role of the next GM and QB competition scenarios

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Saturday, everyone. The schedule release bumped back the mailbag a little, particularly because there are a ton of great questions so…. let’s get rolling.

@skolallday27 What do you think the Oline ends up looking like versus the Packers at home?

As long as everyone is healthy, the starting offensive line will be Darrisaw, Jackson, Brandel, Fries and O’Neill.

At least all of them get a full offseason this year. Last season, Darrisaw had a limited camp, Jackson just got drafted, Brandel didn’t play any center and Fries had a limited camp.

They also have a good setup at backup tackle. Where I’m interested is guard. Will they have Walter Rouse move to guard like they talked about doing last year? There’s really no proven interior O-linemen on the roster.

@PassRushDiary IOL who you like /what’s different. What’s the difference between the last three years and the 5 game stretch KOC brought up with PFT ? Whats changing in the run game? How does it feel to finally invest inside IDL. Swing tackle has kinda been addressed. What’s his best traits?

— There should be reasonable skepticism about Brandel at center but I could see him being pretty good there. Jackson should take a big step forward this year and Fries having an entire offseason is important. Last season Fries started out fine and then seemed to run out of steam, probably because he spent the whole offseason recovering from a leg injury.

— The difference for KOC, at least from what he has said, is that it really hit him over the final five games that sometimes you have to win games based on what you need on that particular day rather than winning the way you want to win. So if you have to grind out a victory and throw for 3 yards, then do it rather than forcing the passing attack when it’s not there.

— The biggest change in the run game is going to be the hiring of Frank Smith from Miami. They had the most dynamic rushing attack in the NFL last year with all sorts of moving parts and he’s going to bring some of that to the Vikings.

— Interior D-line is something that we’ve been calling for them to address in the draft for like five years so it does feel like a step in the right direction, it just has to hit.

— If you mean Ryan Van Demark, his best trait is power. He’s enormous, strong and has pretty good feet. He isn’t nimble or bendy enough to be a starter but he can hold his own.

@MIvikesfan Any thoughts or info on some of the younger udfa’s who have been developing? Do you think any might be prime for an increased role or reliable backup? McGothern? Vaughn? Batty? Joe Huber? Etc?

Every one of them has a reason to at least think they can play a depth role. Can I really tell you with any degree of certainty if any of them will emerge as decent players? No sir, I cannot. That’s going to play out in camp.

If I were to pick one, I’d probably go Tyler Batty. He has some size and aggressiveness to his game and positional flexibility. Other than him, none of those guys really look primed to play roles outside of special teams. I might toss Chaz Chambliss out there as someone who could get on the field at OLB too.

@les_viking56654 Who starts in Week 1?

Assuming you mean at QB… Pie chart if everyone’s healthy: Kyler Murray 97%, JJ McCarthy 3%, Carson Wentz 0%, Max Brosmer 0%.

I just want folks to spend some time this offseason watching 2024 and 2025 Kyler games. He’s not perfect but there’s a lot to like.

@peterphilp08 How early before the official release do teams get the schedule? Looking at some of the team releases then they must have a lot of time to put together stuff

I’ve never asked but if you look at the way they are all shot, it’s in segments that can be stitched together. So whatever timeframe they are working with, they can put it together quickly.

@JPTheodoro01 Feels we have a huge role on the edge position besides Van Ginkel and Turner, do you see us adding a guy like Jadeveon Clowney? He was still effective last year as a pass rusher and got decent pressure numbers

The thing about Jadeveon Clowney is that he rarely plays a full season and he has a lot of wild ups and downs. I don’t know enough about him to say that he’s a “play when I wanna play” type guy but it comes across that way with his production from year to year. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t do it considering his talent. I’m just not sure he’s a fit with how they want to do things. It just seems like he’s always available and nobody ever wants to keep him. I’d rather go with Kyle Van Noy or Leonard Floyd if we’re talking old dudes in free agency.

@timoseppa Assuming that Wentz has fully recovered from last season’s injury by the time a backup is needed, what’s your best guess - do you think McCarthy or Wentz plays first, if Kyler gets hurt?

If they had to play a game on May 31, Carson Wentz would probably be QB2. He was much closer to executing the offense that KOC wanted to run. Remember, he had the Vikings’ three biggest outputs in terms of passing yards last year.

That means that McCarthy is going to have to prove that he can command the offense on the same level as Wentz before he can be QB2 in Week 1.

I think the chances are good that McCarthy shows well in this training camp. We’re going to learn a lot about him this summer.

@jmherlitz Yeah, can you explain the Kyler Murray hype? I dont see it.

When things have gone even remotely right for him in terms of supporting cast and health, he’s been a top 12 QB in the NFL. Whether it’s PFF grade, QBR, EPA or the opinions of NFL coaches and executives in The Athletic’s QB Tier poll, every metric puts him in that range. And he’s never had coaching or a supporting cast that matches the one he’s going to get this year.

I’m not sure how anyone couldn’t understand the potential high end of this considering Sam Darnold was a talented QB with a much, much worse track record just won 14 games for the Vikings with a similar setup in 2024. Murray has his flaws and they have often led to his downfall in certain years but he’s incredibly talented. His accuracy is among the best in the NFL since he came into the league and his rushing EPA is in the top 5.

Sometimes it blows my mind the way we evaluate quarterbacks. 90% of the Vikings fanbase wanted Sam Darnold sent to space after a playoff game because everyone claimed he couldn’t win but you can’t see how Kyler Murray could make it work in a much better location than the pathetic Arizona Cardinals?

Not saying there’s any guarantees but it’s not hard to see how this works with Justin Jefferson and KOC.

@10YearsAGopher Who’s the starting center going to be?

Blake Brandel.

They didn’t draft anyone or sign anyone so unless they’re going to make a surprising trade, he’s the guy.

@TruOperations On a scale of 1-10, how cool (not beneficial, not helpful, not anything but cool) would it be if Harrison Smith played one more year?

That’s a tough scale because there’s a very big part of me that thinks his career ended perfectly last year with him playing like a beast down the stretch and showing the fans how much he loves the game. It wouldn’t be great if he came back and then couldn’t still operate at the same level physically.

I’m not sure what Harry is going to do but I could see a situation where he stays in shape and waits to see what happens with the season.

@CooperLarry Of all the players in the final year of their contract, who would you guess gets extended.

The best player to extend this summer would be Isaiah Rodgers because he could end up having a pretty big price tag if he plays as well in 2026 as he did in 2025 but he will probably bet on himself to hit free agency next year.

Both Cashman and O’Neill make total sense as veteran players whose game is still very strong. The only thing is, if they are trying to figure out how they’re going to build around a contract extension for Kyler if he plays well, they need as much flexibility as possible and might decide to wait and see.

I’m not sure how the new GM is going to assess those situations. If I was that person, I wouldn’t extend anyone this offseason so I could evaluate everything at the end of 2026.

@KukerRandy Low chance… but let’s say JJ is dialed in in camp and legit is as good as Kyler. Do the Vikes (KOC) have the cajones to pull a Pete Carroll and start JJ and trade Kyler? Get 27 draft capital, Wentz as backup, Cooper Rush as QB3????

The Seahawks not starting Matt Flynn is not comparable to the Murray/McCarthy situation. First, because Kyler is massively more talented than Flynn and has a wildly better track record and second because Russ was fantastic from Day 1.

If they are even in camp, Kyler’s going to start and they’re going to feel really good about JJ as QB2 and be pretty confident about any situation where he has to play.

It would have to be a complete trainwreck with Kyler in order for anyone else to start Week 1.

@CarlfrmLakeElmo In Dane’s “The Beast”, he notes that Tiernan may be best suited as a guard; do the Vikings see it that way or they set on making him a tackle?

I believe he is going to start at tackle and then see where it goes. Tiernan has legit athleticism to play the right tackle position, so you don’t want to bail on that right away just because he has short arms. I could definitely see him getting work at guard to see how he looks at that spot and whether there might be starting potential down the road.

Side note: I’ve come to think that O-line depth is the secret cheat code of the NFL. Teams should always be drafting these guys even when they don’t need them.

@FfbScott Does Claiborne have a legitimate shot to be RB1?

(Checking for my friend’s dynasty bags)

At the start of the season? No. I really like his skillset as a change-of-pace guy but Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones are the main backs from the beginning. I think people forget how good Mason was last year because this team isn’t known for its prolific run game. By the end of the season, however, it will be interesting to see where Claiborne is at. Normally we’d never say that a Day 3 pick has a chance to get significant time right away but in this instance — especially with two RBs who have been banged up — he does have a shot at getting more work than you’d expect from that draft slot.

Bekwelem… A lot of the data that has been shown recently confirm that the Vikings drafts have been bad for a while. When one considers that the period covers both Kwesi and Rick eras, how do we know that scouting is not the problem? Especially when you consider that our scouting setup has been in place and largely unchanged for several years.

I definitely understand the sentiment that when a team hasn’t succeeded in the draft that we want to point the finger at scouts but I think that’s a bit of a misunderstanding of what scouts actually do. They are not decision makers. The scouts spend their year going around gathering information on hundreds of players. They write detailed reports on every guy that includes their skillset and all sorts of background stuff like what their teammates and coaches think of them and whatever other nuggets they can come up with about the character of the player.

Teams only draft 5-10 of these players and the scouts aren’t the ones that pick them.

Is it possible that the info isn’t good enough? I guess so. But it’s more likely that the Vikings failures in the draft come from not having high draft picks and then there’s some bad luck and bad process mixed in.

If a new GM comes in and wants to bring in his own folks, I’m certainly OK with that idea because that’s how it works sometimes. However, I just don’t see blaming scouts as the solution here. It’s asset management when it comes to stockpiling draft picks and it’s better process in terms of making the selections.

Billy J… With Jennings on the team now, over/under 2.5 training camp fights

The Vikings under KOC haven’t had too many fights in training camp. I’m guessing Jennings will be pretty surprised at how different things are done in camp from San Francisco.

I do think that a player like Jennings has been missing from the Vikings’ group of weapons. Josh Oliver has really been the only guy who plays regularly that you’d say has a physical edge and intimidation factor to his game. Jennings is a very annoying player to go against for opponents because they can’t take any plays off when he’s blocking and there’s no arm tackles allowed. Plus in the red zone, sometimes it takes a WR just manhandling someone to get in the end zone. I was a big buyer of Jalen Nailor but he didn’t have those things to his game.

Evan… If you put yourself in the shoes of each GM candidate, how do you distinguish yourself from others? Is there anything that one of them has that others don’t? There’s only so many approaches and everyone has the same scouting background. Or is the GM search a glorified speed dating compatibility exercise with KOC?

Well, it certainly might be a compatibility exercise with KOC and that’s pretty darn important because the Wilfs are going to want collaboration, no matter who they pick. They are not getting a Czar who is taking over the franchise and doing everything his way.

In terms of separating themselves, I’d guess that it begins with their plan. Each GM candidate is going to show up with an analysis of the roster and their outline for how to deal with the 2027 issues facing the team along with a long-term building plan. I suspect they are going to present their leadership philosophies, talk about who they’d like to bring into the organization with them if they are hired and what they think needs to be changed.

Having never been interviewed for a GM position, I can’t say for sure on any of this stuff but I’m sure the Wilfs and KOC also want to hear about what these guys’ current organizations did to get ahead. What do the Rams or Seahawks do that the AGM could bring with them to Minnesota?

Evan… Part 2: a lot of us like the idea of having Rob the President and above the GM, but if he gets the final say wouldn’t it make sense to just make Rob the GM? Or are the GM/President roles different and what would it look like for Rob as President vs. GM?

Also want to say I loved your pod with Kalyn Kahler. She made me realize that it’s not actually that normal for GMs to “bring their own people/scouts” because they all have their own contracts still. That was one thing we’ve discussed before and I thought it might be good to have a FO overhaul, but definitely more comfortable with keeping the FO in tact. It also sheds some light on the issues with Kwesi weren’t so much about not having his own people

The idea of Rob being president is that rather than having kinda equal “power” distributed between the GM and HC and have them try to work together and each answer to ownership, you’d have the GM and HC answering to Rob and Rob answering to ownership. You’d also have someone who is very skilled in asset management overseeing a scouting person, so the different skillsets can play off each other but Rob would be the guy who could say “sorry, we’re not doing that.”

I also think with the Wilfs not living in Minnesota, having someone they truly trust to report to them and manage the building is important. We saw Rick and Zim get off track and Kwesi and the rest of the front office/coaches not exactly be on the same page, so having a liaison directly to ownership who can guide their thinking about what’s happening in the building is key.

When it comes to a GM bringing in their own people, it’s definitely the case that a new GM wouldn’t fire all the scouts or whatever right away. However, they will often bring in their own people in the executive spots if they are really taking over as The Guy in the building. Kwesi didn’t really get a chance to do that. Not an excuse for him, but it was an uphill battle because Rick was respected and Kwesi had a different background.

Roger N… Is there data on number of home/away/neutral site games impact on the wild card races in the 17 game season?

That’s a great question. I don’t believe anyone has studied it. There has been some thought in recent years that the home/away advantage has dwindled but I think for the Vikings specifically it does matter still.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick search on point differential for home vs. road teams. I found that 24 teams have had a positive home point differential since 2022. The Vikings are +134 at home since then and -44 on the road. It’s not a perfect way to study it but if you’re asking whether it matters that the Vikings have nine home games and only seven road this year (one neutral), I’d definitely go with yes.

Nick L… In regards to the scouting... How defined is the instructions? Do the scouts get told what to look for or what to exclude or are they just finding people and telling the team to look at prospects?

Is the issue the scouts... Or people making the draft board list?

The way it works is the GM gives the scouts directives. For example, let’s say that a team wants to build a Brian Flores defense. The GM is going to have scouts focus on finding players who have versatility, high IQ and college production. They’re going to look at everyone but they’re going to flag those types of guys to highlight in their meetings.

The director of college scouting, player personnel, GM, coaches etc. are going to work with those reports, watch their own tape, then build the draft board in those meetings.

People having an issue with the scouts would be like saying that the guys who are pouring cement at a construction site are to blame if the building has design flaws.

And I’ll continue to say this: When you scout 500 players and you draft five and three of the five are on Day 3, you should probably not be looking at the scouts.

Anonymous Vikings fan .… Curious what you think about the chances of the defense regressing this year. The takes I’ve seen on the biggest 2026 question marks assume the defense stays solid and put the wider range of outcomes on Kyler and the offense. But there were some real shakeups on defense as well. It feels like it might be a little overlooked?

Yeah, because Hargrave and Allen didn’t meet expectations and we expect another step from Dallas Turner, there’s sort of an assumption that it will all be totally fine. When you add up the amount of QB pressures created by Greenard/Hargrave/Allen, that’s over 100 pressures to replace. Yes, they can be a bit better vs. the run if everything works out but there isn’t really a safety net if it doesn’t work right away. They are going to be asking a lot of Caleb Banks and Domonique Orange as rookies and guys like Ty Ingram-Dawkins and Levi Drake Rodriguez.

The other part is obviously Harrison Smith. He was so good at the end of last year and he’s such an alien when it comes to having a defensive coordinator on the field. How do you replace the communication/play calling side and the physical side of him making plays?

They are really putting a lot on Brian Flores to coach these guys up. It’s not going to be easy to get the same level of production as last year.

Ramsey K… I’m curious about all the articles fawning over the Rams’ use of 13 personnel last year. Obviously, a huge value add if you have a WR like Puka, Jefferson, etc. who can get open at will and then you can just obliterate other teams via the run. Could you see the Vikings running some 12 personnel with Jennings instead of Addison at times to essentially recreate the Rams’ 13 strategy but with a second WR instead?

I definitely see them running some 12 personnel with Jennings on the field when they want to overpower people.

The thing about the 13 personnel stuff is that there is value in being multiple. It makes it very hard to prepare against if you have all sorts of different personnel grouping combinations and formations and you can run your core stuff out of all of them.

It’s one reason that I like the Jennings is that he brings something different to the table. If you want to overpower a team or run some play-action stuff off a typical run personnel, you can. Or if you want to have him play in 11 personnel and run deep stuff, he’s a good underneath player. Maybe Tai Felton can get into the mix as a clearout deep guy or a quick screen type dude. Max Bredeson also gives them lots of flexibility too.

It’s a very, very versatile offense.

Matt D… If the Vikings added one more veteran before camp, who do you think that would be, and why? I would guess Jadeveon Clowney because edge is more important than safety and he was both cheap and productive last year.

Clowney has truly had an incredible career. I have to imagine there is a good reason why he hasn’t stuck anywhere, yet he continues to produce year after year. On paper he makes a ton of sense but Flores does need guys who are going to follow along with what he wants them to do rather than doing their own thing.

I’ve been wondering about whether they’d have any interest in Jihad Ward coming back. He had 47 pressures for the Titans last year. I could see Haason Reddick, AJ Epenesa, Kyle Van Noy or Leonard Floyd all being options.

They need to add some type of veteran there.

Evan… What do you think of a lot of media saying that there’s a true QB competition between Murray and McCarthy? I thought it was just full-offseason-nothing-else-to-talk-about-better-make-a-controversial-take, but even Alec Lewis has reported this. No way Murray comes here to be anything but QB1. The real QB competition is between McCarthy and Wentz for QB2

There is zero benefit to the Vikings declaring a quarterback in May. I’m sure they want to see how things play out, keep JJ McCarthy motivated to push as hard as he can to make progress and make things interesting. We have to use our common sense here. Not only is Kyler not going anywhere that he wouldn’t be the clear QB1, he’s been a legitimate star quarterback at times during his career. He’s one of the most accurate and dynamic QBs in the NFL. There is a high ceiling with an offense with this much talent being run by Kyler.

But you never know what’s going to happen. Why tell McCarthy that he has no chance right now? Just because they made a needed change due to the quality of the roster and pressure on everyone to win doesn’t mean they’ve tossed out any hope that McCarthy can still become an NFL QB. They just realized it’s not going to happen on the timeline they wanted.

Jason… When they are assigning these international games, do the teams get to agree to participate or they told by the league this is happening? It just seems so weird that year after year the Vikings have international games.

I’m going to be honest with you… I have no idea how it works. I do know that the Vikings organization as a whole embraces the international games. It’s a lot of work but I don’t think they see it as a burden. In fact, taking a home game away from San Francisco is probably something they were happy about.

Tony T… What are some of the ways they can use Bredeson? I’m just realizing he’s probably a pretty good blocking tight end as well as fullback. You could line him up at tight end and motion him to fullback, and vice versa, right? What did O’Connell call it, the illusion of complexity?

In a non-dramatic way, it seems like the Vikings off-season has been handled very well. If Banks hits, Brzezinski might be a draft savant. Could we regret passing him over for an untested rookie, like we did with Darnold?

You are exactly right. Bredeson is going to be all over the place. He can line up at tight end and move around to wherever they want him to block or he can be in the backfield and play a traditional fullback spot. He opens up the possibility of a lot of shifts and motions pre-snap too. Those are great with a fullback because he can change the defense’s assignments at the last second and can be used really well for misdirection. I think Bredeson is going to be a low key weapon.

I agree with you that the offseason was handled well, though I’m not sure I’d dub someone a “savant” because one pick goes right. He did exactly what he said he was going to do: Ran the meetings to get everyone on the same page and then stuck to their board, even if it meant making a risky/aggressive move.

Could they regret passing on Rob for the GM job? It’s not like they’re going to kick him out of town. I like the idea of him getting the top job and the GM/HC working under him but even he doesn’t get that type of promotion he’s still going to be a key member of the front office.

Jimmy B… Okay off season talk. Where do football insiders get their info and stats? Best place for breaking NFL and Vikings news.

I’ve created my social media feed to follow almost every NFL beat reporter and national reporter, so that’s where I see everything. Usually Adam Schefter, Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero are the ones who have the most “breaking news.” Because so much of it runs through them, I’ve always made my focus to be analysis. I want to be as well researched as possible to be ready to break down anything that comes my way in a moment’s notice.

As far as stats, there’s a lot of different sources there. I use Pro-Football Reference, PFF, TruMedia, ESPN and sometimes individual data folks that I enjoy following.

The best places for Vikings news/analysis are from the people who are there every day. Myself, Kevin Seifert, Alec Lewis, Dane Mizutani, Ben Goessling, Andrew Krammer, Mark Craig, Emily Leiker.

Jeffrey S… When do you think the Vikings will sign a DE (our starters are fine, our depth is not)? After June 1 (and the influx of cap)?

Given the realistic constraints of cap, how do you grade the offseason?

Heard the podcast on Banks/Orange... Would you say that you are somewhat positive on the pickups (with the caveat that Banks is very hit or miss)?

I do think they will get another OLB/DE after June 1.

As far as the offseason goes, I have been very impressed by the way that Rob navigated the whole thing. It was a pretty brutal cap situation that I think could have caused a decision maker to panic and start restructuring contracts like there was no tomorrow. He was methodical about it and Jauan Jennings was the result of that patience. Landing Murray, to me, makes it an A grade offseason. Had they ended up with Kirk, I’d be singing a different tune.

As far as Banks/Orange, I don’t really view things as positive/negative. I view it as range of outcomes and percentages. Because the pick was risky based on injury/consensus/production, the chances that Banks becomes the next Chris Jones or Dexter Lawrence aren’t that high but there’s a chance that he could reach that ceiling, which makes him a big swing type of pick. I do think that Mike Renner made a good point on my show that his floor likely isn’t that low because he is so big/strong/quick that he’s at least going to be a handful for opponents.

Here’s what I do like about it: The position. Having a beastly interior is a cheat code. Opposing teams absolutely hate going against monsters in the middle. If these guys click, it’s going to be awesome for a long time.

Chris C… Completely non football related but who’s on your personal mt Rushmore of guitar players or 4 greatest personal influences if you prefer it phrases that way?

The four guitar players that I learned the most from growing up were Randy Rhodes, Kirk Hammett, Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughan. I would also include Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Cantrell in there.

As YouTube became a thing, the list is endless. I saw Steve Vai and Joe Satriani in concert last week. I’ve listened to a ton of them over the years. Everything from Andy Timmons to Megadeath to Yngwie Malmsteen to Tom Morello to Robert Johnson to Dave Gilmour to Chris Buck and on and on.

Pete B… Do you think the changes along the defensive line benefit Ivan Pace Jr.? I wouldn’t be surprised by a bit of a bounce back season from him. Those big d-lineman occupying blockers might help our LB corps stay healthier and productive this year.

Theoretically yes. If the idea is to have the DTs using their size/power to create lanes for blitzers, Pace Jr. is legitimately good at that. I’m just not sure after what we saw last year if he’s going to see the field a lot in an ideal world. If there are injuries, then he is the next man up right now, it just seems like they like Eric Wilson a lot more in that role.

Generally speaking, Orange/Banks/LDR should be a combo that benefits all of the linebackers quite a bit versus what we saw last year. However, we also shouldn’t act like Allen/Hargrave were just total garbage and never did anything right. The defense was outstanding at blitzing and run defense down the stretch last year. Orange/Banks have a lot of adjusting to the NFL to do before we guarantee that they’re going to be big upgrades.

JeffInSeattle… I think we should add a veteran DI, LB, CB and interior OL. They should be able to address these before training camp is over. Thoughts?

I don’t disagree with you, however, there’s not exactly an impressive list of guys at those positions that are left kicking around. They might approach it a little differently and see what’s out there after training camp when teams make cutdowns.

There’s a list of guys who have been around that are still out there and could be helpful contributors, I just wonder if they’re going to let some things play out with the roster first.

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