The latest Justin Jefferson’s rumor is insane

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about a baffling Justin Jefferson rumor about draft night, when Justin Jefferson’s contract is coming and whether the Vikings will have a line in the sand they won’t cross with his extension. Is this week the week?

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[Music] [Music] regulator Mount up we’re coming [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] hey everybody welcome to another episode of purple Insider Matthew caller here and like we’ve been doing for the last couple of wolves games I come on live to YouTube and talk for an hour about football to get ready for the Wolves game and I have my best wolves hoodie on which is I mean you gotta admit that’s pretty sick uh it’s uh one of my favorites if you’ve seen me wear it on the channel before uh also ask for a little bit of forgiveness my voice is uh battling a little bit here so I got the DI Dr Pepper we’ll fight through it I hosted on WCCO radio the other night and also did a podcast and a couple of radio appearances the same day and it just imploded like uh a tire going flat so I will fight through it I will grind for football because we have a very weird and bizarre rumor to talk about just before I came on Pro Football Talk tweeted this out we caught win on draft night but couldn’t confirm it now Charlie Walters of the Pioneer Press reports on Buzz that the Vikings tried to trade up for Malik neighbors Walters adds that if it happened Justin Jefferson would have been traded so to read this again pro football talk says that they had quote by I don’t know why he says we when it’s just a guy it’s Mike Florio uh says caught wind of a potential trade where the Vikings tried to trade up to get Malik neighbors and now Charlie Walters is reporting the same thing that there was Buzz they wanted to go get Malik neighbors and then trade Justin Jefferson and I gotta say uh I don’t understand this at all I also don’t understand what the standard is for journalism of reporting stuff uh because buzz and caught wind and a bunch of stuff that did not happen happen is what we’re reporting here kind of strange uh what I can’t help but wonder is who is it that keeps saying to some people outside of the building that there’s a possibility of Justin Jefferson being traded to specifically Charlie Walters uh because he’s the only one in town or out of town who has ever reported anything and by reported it’s always been vague well you know they might and there’s winds and there’s Steam and there’s whatever other weather condition involving Justin Jefferson but it’s never been anything definitive it’s never been this is what is going to happen or this is what they want to happen and what Buzz is I have no idea is Buzz one person suggesting it is it somebody telling him that there was this convers and yet here we are on a giant platform of a Twitter that has 1.9 million followers in pro football talk giving credence to from something that is in super super vague and completely implausible which is to that the Vikings would trade up for a wide receiver when it was blatantly clear to everyone with any sort of understanding of the NFL at all that the Vikings were going to to draft a quarterback in this draft and then what they did was drafted a quarterback in this draft after letting go of Kirk Cousins trading Justin Jefferson to also then trade up and draft Malik neighbors with the hope that you get an elite wide receiver which they already have in Justin Jefferson for whom to throw to I guess Sam darnold that would take an absurd amount of belief in Sam darnold for them to do that and keep in mind Sam darnold who I think does have a realistic possibility of playing well this year has never played well in his entire career outside of a small six game sample size for the Carolina Panthers at the end of a season where he did not beat out Baker Mayfield for that job so there really can’t be a whole lot of confidence that Sam darnold is going to be the next franchise quarterback so that’s what it would take it would take a absurd amount of belief in a quarterback who’s never really done anything it would take them imploding their best player that they’ve had on their team in a very very long time sending them off for draft picks to take a swing at another receiver who in college was really really excellent and is very talented but we don’t know if he could play at all and there have been many good wide receivers drafted High who have not turned out to be good that is what this report is asking you to buy into the idea that the Minnesota Vikings would consider that that just does not sound even remotely realistic or does not sound like it fits with anything that the Vikings have said or done over how many years now and one thing that has been made clear is that when the Vikings say that they want to do something they do it uh and this this goes for quacy adaao meno where he comes in and he says we’re going to go into a competitive rebuild mode and then they did and they moved on from a bunch of players in 2022 in the offseason after that season moved on from a bunch of players to reset their roster and to correct the salary cap and that’s exactly what happened they told us more or less outright about what their thought process was with Kirk Cousins we like Kirk Cousins but we won’t pay over a certain price for Kurt Cousins then guess what Atlanta went complet nuts the Vikings didn’t pay the price for KK cousins who probably would have come back had they put the dough down on the table and then Kirt cousins leaves and goes to Atlanta they go in front of us at the combine at the owners meetings at the pre-draft press conference and they tell us we’re drafting a quarterback that we love this quarterback class we’ve planned on this for years and this is what we’re going to do and then on draft night guess what they did they drafted a quarterback and his name is JJ McCarthy and he’s on the football team right now there isn’t a single thing that I can look at that the Vikings brass has told us outright over the last four years that they haven’t done we don’t really actually have to play games with this group they pretty much just tell you here’s our thought process here’s our idea here’s what we’re going to do uh even when it came to a player like denal Hunter for example where they took a very similar approach to Kirk Cousins we love denal Hunter but everything’s a negotiation they drew a line in the sand hunter wanted more got his guaranteed money in Houston he’s gone they signed a bunch of players they have set up the salary cap for next year as they said they wanted to do when they got here which was to set the salary cap up so they could have a bunch of space to build around this quarterback everything that’s been said publicly has come to fruition for the Vikings and that includes so far as far as we know they have told us over and over and over again that they want to sign Justin Jefferson to a long-term contract extension period there has never been any waffling there has never been any wavering there has never been the well you know we like Justin but we’ll kind of see how it goes if we go back quy adaaa said a couple years ago that when he first got the job he doesn’t want to be the general manager if he doesn’t have Justin Jefferson on his team that’s what he said I don’t even want to be the GM if I can’t have Justin Jefferson on my team and then we go to last year where they negotiated with Justin Jefferson a year earlier than you usually ever do with a first round wide receiver normally the only players who get contract extension talks the year before they are going into the final year of their contract so two years before our quarterbacks and that was when Jared gof signed his extension and we’ve seen numerous other extensions from quarterbacks get signed as soon as they were eligible to do that those are the only players who enter negotiations in fact look at TJ hackinson a star player whose team decided not to extend him and then he goes into negotiations with the Vikings after getting traded here and they do it the year before he’s going to be a free agent that’s how it normally works even when the guy is a star player so the Vikings negotiate with him last year trying to get a deal done it was obvious this is what we want to do Mark wil walked out in front of us and said I will be involved in this negotiation we want this to happen Jefferson’s going to be a long-term part of our franchise and then as recently as right after the NFL draft quy adaao Mena says to us yep we’re working on it we’re talking with their uh with their side and what we want is uh to be able to make sure that when we sign this extension for Justin Jefferson he can have a whole week to himself like he gets a whole week for his birthday that was the way that qu adaa Mena talked about this which then I had heard a little bit if you want to call it Buzz that’s the best way I could put it just that it seems like things were rolling in the right direction and we even see Justin Jefferson at the Timberwolves game the other night as well so obviously he was in town and my expectation has been to keep the alerts on my phone just in case Adam schfer suddenly reports from obviously Jefferson’s agents or whatever that they have come to a contract agreement wouldn’t be surprised if it’s this week wouldn’t be surprised if it’s next week and uh there’s also a possibility that it goes deeper into the summer as often giant negotiations do for these huge contracts with Superstar players there is not a shred of evidence that the Vikings have wanted to or tried to or attempted to move Justin Jefferson uh there has been no credible reporter with anything definitive no shefer no Rapaport not even a little Jason lockon for or Jay Glazer on this one the people who are kind of uh in unique spaces as NFL insiders no Albert Breer just these two for whatever reason and it’s never been definitive in any way it’s always just been super vague and it’s been you know the Viking should do this they should do this so there seems to be one person maybe within the Vikings organization who wants this to happen and keeps telling people that it’s a possibility that it’s going to happen but there’s no one else that has made this look like it’s a possibility in fact you almost wonder if some of these rumors are meant to undermine the relationship between the Vikings and Jefferson more than anything because I know from Jefferson’s side that I have heard his side does not want things leaked out and debated in the media so I this I don’t know what this is is this meant to upset Justin Jefferson and uh try to delay these negotiations I have no idea but none of it makes a lick of sense the Vikings planned out their three four-year plan as a front office to draft a quarterback this year that they had had this in in mind and then they did in JJ McCarthy so for me until something of substance comes out from The Trusted NFL insiders until there is any real evidence that this is getting to a point where it’s getting ugly which there hasn’t been any of that so far aside from missing OTAs which are voluntary by the way there’s players around the league who are not negotiating contracts who haven’t gone to OTAs because they are voluntary uh the heat turns up a little bit if we get to mandatory mini camp and the Vikings end up finding Justin Jefferson then there will be more to talk about but as far as this rumor it just doesn’t make a lick of sense that they would try to use their draft Capital not on a quarterback but instead on a wide receiver so they could trade away Justin Jefferson it’s it’s bizarre and it doesn’t remotely pass the SW the smell test so I I don’t know where where or why these things are coming out uh I wouldn’t say that there’s even been enough of them to say where there’s smoke there’s fire and if I’m wrong I’m wrong and I’ll say okay I guess I I misread that situation but everything that the Vikings have told us they were going to do they’ve done and they’ve told us over and over and over we’re going to sign Justin Jefferson to an extension this battle could get heated and I do want to remind you that the other negotiations that have happened at this type of level have also included trade rumors so that includes uh Nick Bosa if you Google it you just go to Google and type it in I’ve done this type in Nick Bosa trade rumors you’ll find it you’ll find people talking about hey are the San Francisco 49ers going to trade Nick Bosa how about Debo Samuel at one point even requested a trade from the San Francisco 49ers as he was negotiating with them as this is not uncommon for these things to happen but my expectation Still Remains that it will go exactly the way we think it’s going to go with Justin Jefferson signing an extension we have not heard from Jefferson he hasn’t tweeted anything he hasn’t unfollowed the Vikings on Twitter he hasn’t uh favored something that says trade Jefferson to the Jets or whatever uh so there has been just really no noise whatsoever as we wait for this to happen but I think it’s worth making the point that any player that’s been negotiating a major contract extension like this has always come along with some sort of noise that that player wants to get traded and I think one thing is that is always guaranteed is if you talk about trading a popular player it will come along with a lot of Engagement a lot of people will react a lot of people will respond a lot of people will click every single time if you say a player is getting traded and that’s the best I can do for why there would be any semblance of a quote rumor about this but uh when it’s steam when it’s Buzz I’m sorry you’re going to have to bring something more definitive than that to go completely against everything the organization has presented and also you think just in general about the idea of trading away your LeBron James your franchise level player who that you one day want to build a statue of outside US Bank Stadium uh that doesn’t seem very plausible and I I know that there’s going to always be the people who say Hey you know it’s going to be very expensive and you should trade them I just implore you to do a few things one of them is to look at other expensive contracts and how they’re structured and normally it’s several years into the deal before it takes off big time and the big difference between ajust the Jefferson deal and kir cousins is that cousins was already a veteran player and he signed short-term deals that were so fully guaranteed that they didn’t have any wiggle room with the salary cap outside of adding those void years to it but with a Justin Jefferson extension if you’re talking four years on top of what he’s gonna make this year so technically maybe you even make it a fiveyear extension four years on top of the fifth year option year for example uh then you can spread that out much more than you would be able to if it was like a Kirk Cousins extension making it a lot more manageable down the road eligible for restructures things like that and you’re also not paying a quarterback and you might say well 35 million he’s approaching quarterback money sort of but a quarterback now is making $50 million so you’re still talking about a 15 million gap between your top wide receiver in the entire NFL and a quarterback not only that but when you look over the roster for the Vikings in general there’s not a lot of players who are making a lot of money next year they’ll probably restructure Brian O’Neal’s contract or extend him to lower his salary cap hit Harrison Smith will retire at some point Jonathan grenard will be expensive outside of that who’s expensive and Christian derasa eventually will can you afford in a salary cap that goes up every single year enough for two players that are really expensive yes you can eight players might be harder but two players when you have a quarterback making $45 million less than the top quarterbacks in the league in terms of what JJ McCarthy is making versus say Jared gof of course you can fit that money in so if you’re just joining the rumor is I’ll read it again uh pro football talk saying quote we caught wind on draft night but couldn’t confirm it now Charlie Walters of the Pioneer Press reports on quote Buzz that the Vikings tried to trade up for Malik neighbors Walters adds if that happened Justin Jefferson would have been traded and at zero point in that rumor did it ever make any sense whatsoever considering that the Vikings had let KT cousins go they had planned this draft CL I mean think about this they went and visited all the quarterbacks they spent endless hours flying to North Carolina to meet with Drake May flying to Michigan to meet with JJ McCarthy flying to Washington to meet with Michael pennick sit down with them draw up on the Whiteboard take them out on the field take them out to lunch talk to everybody in their campuses and they did this to trade for Malik neighbor it just does doesn’t make any sense at all and uh I I think you could probably sense over the last few weeks uh the frustration that I’ve had about these Justin Jefferson ideas trade ideas the Jersey swap nonsense and everything else I mean we’re not even deep into the summer and we’re already KNE deep in BS is kind of the way that I’m looking at it with Jefferson and again look if they suddenly trade him for somebody uh I will be very surprised uh once upon a time I was a little bit surprised that Stefan Diggs was traded by the Vikings but not as not like this this would be one of the biggest shocks and also it would go under the category of the Randy Moss the Kevin Garnett the the the big trades uh that have seen all-time great Minnesota athletes leave this place I don’t think that the Vikings want anything to do with that Infamous list of athletes who have been sent out of here uh there’s a such thing as Moneyball and then there’s just being completely insane which would be the case the only way that you could ever see this happening is if Justin Jefferson said I will never sign a contract extension with you but even if he did that you’re still talking about two franchise tags within the team’s winning window he is such a big part of why you can let Kirk Cousins go and draft a quarterback back he is such a big part of the discussion of putting things around your quarterback to make the best possible team and you’re going to send that out for somebody who might or might not be good in the NFL it’s uh it’s a wild time folks it is a wild time and I just have to go back to the same place that we’ve been for a really long time since the negotiation started which is just to say that my expectation is still that they get this done I just don’t know when could come tomorrow could come weeks from now uh could come next year I don’t know uh but I’m still expecting I don’t expect it to come next year and just at some point during training camp right before the season Nick Bosa took it up to just days before the season and that’s the best I can do because there’s nothing pointing to this Buzz or steam or whatever word you want to use having a whole heck of a lot of Merit um if there’s if there’s other evidence look with Stefan digs here’s the difference he told us with Stefan Diggs he came out and said I’m unhappy the only thing Justin Jefferson has said publicly is uh I want all the money because I deserve it which of course we all agree with and uh he’s going to get all the money so there you go a completely wackadoodle rumor that again if something ever comes of it uh then I’ll just shrug my shoulders and tell you I guess I guess I I misread that one but it feels much more like there is someone involved in this that wants this not to happen with an extension with Justin Jefferson and keeps leaking stuff leaking information but the amount of BS that goes on in the NFL when it comes to this stuff is uh I guess why you know certain Twitter accounts can have two million followers because it always keeps everybody involved um so there you go that’s a certainly one way to get a lot of clicks for your article for sure is to throw in there something with no actual evidence and just buzz or steam so hopefully it worked uh let’s uh get to your comments here any other questions and comments that you have I’m interested in I’m not going to do the we should trade Jefferson debate because it’s in my mind senseless I don’t see any reason to ever talk about it uh I because it’s not a good idea after drafting a Young quarterback it’s a much better idea to have a great wide receiver that can make your Young quarterback turn out to be great there’s also when it comes to Jefferson there’s nothing that I can even look to that says oh yeah remember that time he said this remember that time he said that or hey you know he’s been acting this way and the team doesn’t like that or whatever I mean this guy last year amidst negotiations came to training camp and annihilated everyone I sat there on the sideline I stood there’s nowhere to sit I stood on the sideline in the 90 Dee heat and watched Justin Jefferson abuse the Tennessee Titans and Joint practices that he did not have to participate in by the way and Abus the Vikings Corners day after day after day even though a negotiation was going on and now I’m supposed to believe that he wants out that they want out of him it’s just I don’t get it I just don’t get it so all right let’s uh let’s dive into your thoughts sure that you guys have some uh JP says it would be pretty expensive but the longer we wait the bigger the price tag we have to think that by JJ getting like 35 mil guys like Jamar Chase will negotiate after and will probably get even more yeah I’m certain that on the day that he gets signed he will want to be the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL um and he’ll probably want to be the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL and I would say that that’s pretty deserving considering what he’s accomplished and even when they didn’t have their starting quarterback last year he nearly willed them to two wins uh that is pretty darn impressive I mean it’s just you can’t I know that we didn’t see him for some time last year because he had the injury but this is one of the most dominant players in the entire NFL of the last decade and he has been mostly healthy outside of that one injury the he just has been incredible and signing him to a $35 million contract when you have the cap space and you have the opportunity to do that in this window with JJ McCarthy you don’t get rid of players like this I’ll say it a thousand times when we talk about Justin Jefferson’s air where he breathes where he lives we’re not talking about a pretty good wide receiver or a guy that you could just replace with another couple of draft picks or whatever we’re talking about the Aaron Donald type of air where yeah teams would trade multiple draft picks Aaron Donald but you do not give them Aaron Donald you try to win a championship with Aaron Donald and you could try to use the Tyreek Hill example but you’d also have to give me Patrick Mahomes and by the way Kansas City’s offense was not as good without Tyreek Hill just I know that they found a way to win because they have the greatest quarterback but they were not as good in the regular season and struggled there’s a significant drop off from Mahomes playing at an MVP level to when he didn’t have Tyreek Hill and then you do the other side of that though is your quarterback more likely to be like Tua or like Mahomes probably like Tua right Tua goes from being on the edge of maybe not even being a starting quarterback for a couple years by his numbers to a star last year who led the league in passing with Tyreek Hill I mean the the impact of these wide receivers is so enormous that it’s worth it and even the data study that Haley English did for purple Insider last summer before she was hired by the Detroit Lions in their analytics department but you could go back and look it up and she found that he is worth as much as an average Quarterback which is crazy to think about when you talk about the winds above replacement and the formula that PFF had that she had privy to uh because she was interning for them and found that he was worth that much I mean think about like a a wide receiver being as much as almost the quarterback is crazy to me that’s the type of value that he brings to your franchise it’s a deal to get him at the highest price and it’s totally fine so I I’m not going to talk about uh the potential of moving him and whether it would have been a good idea had they traded him and drafted a wide receiver and not picked a quarterback I don’t even know like how does this even work do they make a deal with him that goes to a team where they could still draft a qu like I don’t know it sounds like one thing that I do know is that a lot of phone calls happen uh when it comes to the NFL draft and some of those phone calls I guess make their way out into the public uh and and that’s about the best I could possibly do uh Jason says I’m ready for it to be over sign him or trade him I don’t care anymore I think you do Jason I think you do and by the way over like we’re not even into this yet we didn’t get to training camp we’re not even deep into this negotiation we’re not even deep into this like headbutting or ugliness last year TJ hackinson went what three weeks into training camp before they were able to sign him to an extension denil Hunter was sitting out these things happen all the time where it goes into training camp we haven’t even reached June yet this isn’t ugly this is just annoying to hear about rumors like this I’m sure for you but as far as don’t care anymore I think once you watch him get wide open and catch touchdowns from JJ McCarthy again you’re gonna say you know what actually I am happy he’s a Minnesota Viking instead uh Mark says they should just get his contract over with what do the Vikings hate great wide receivers yeah there has been uh some issues in the past with that there’s a history there a little bit with uh Randy Moss and Stefan Diggs I don’t know what the holdup is it’s usually in the details it’s how long is it how does the new money get worked out do they want a completely blown up next year where the Vikings want next year on the book see this could be a a thing where you talk about an an extension so it’s a four-year extension but sometimes a four-year extension is tacked on after the fifth year option year and sometimes the fifth year option year is renegotiated and that’s part of the extension that could be an element of it uh it could be just details of how much guaranteed money there is and all these things and we’re not near a deadline so they don’t have to cross the picket line for each other they don’t have to come to the table because we’re just not that close to the moment where this thing has to happen in my mind that is the week one of the NFL season where they’re going to travel to play the New York Giants that’s really a deadline because that’s when Jefferson would cut off negotiations it’s where they stopped negotiations last year but we are now several months away from that so if you’re Jefferson and you have even the finest detail if you want a Lim to come pick you up and take you to practice every day and the Vikings don’t want to do it you could be like no I won’t sign now I’ll wait I’ll wait because we’re not near a deadline and I think there’s never been a truer saying than deadlines make deals and we’re just not that close to it maybe they view it a little bit as mandatory mini camp it’s a $100,000 fine if he doesn’t come for three days trust me that’s not a big deal to Justin Jefferson he’s probably got the Oakley sponsorship paying for that uh and get it back in spades when he gets his contract extension so even then we’re just not that close to it but I just do want to remind you that if you Google any player who has undergone negotiations like this in recent years every one of them comes along with some sort of trade rumor podcasts and people like PFT talking about should they trade player X Y and Z and sometimes it happens but a lot of times they just sign that player to an extension uh Zumer Kev says maybe there was a scenario where the Vikings would trade a wide receiver for draft picks but that wide receiver would be Jordan Addison and not Justin Jefferson I really don’t know I really don’t know how would they trade for Malik neighbors and then also draft a quarterback unless they were trading with a team they were trading Jefferson to a team that was up in the top of the draft and was going to give them a top draft pick so they could draft a quarterback and then get multiple other picks I mean that’s the only way you can ever make this work but also I mean he has acknowledged quy daensa that he that there are phone calls that are happening all the time there was a rumor out there and it was uh I think there was truth to this rumor that they were talking about trading up last year for quarterbacks with Anthony Richardson CJ strad Bryce young and that never came to fruition either and when you go through that one there was no realist scenario where they could put enough draft Capital down in order to trade up for Anthony Richardson who went fourth overall but you’re making the phone call so of course you’re making the phone call that is the only way you could ever try to figure out a way to make this work is if they were trading up for Neighbors maybe like 11 and 23 and I feel like a little bit sad even going through this but if there was just any realistic discussion of all right you would be trading with I don’t know would it be like Atlanta or Tennessee maybe it’s Tennessee okay so you trade up uh to get Malik neighbors maybe with the New York Giants and you trade 11 and 23 to do that then you trade Jefferson to Tennessee and you draft Michael Pennock or JJ McCarthy there and then you get two more first round draft picks back and I guess somehow that makes sense but at the same time everybody just drafted their guy like do you do you guys remember I went through this if you’re longtime listeners you remember after the draft I went through on Pro footb rumors. CA or whatever the hell it is I went through all the rumors right before the draft and all the trades that people insiders said were going to happen all the players that were supposedly going to get traded and all the misses that came out and it just feels like there’s no standard whatsoever for putting stuff out there at this point it doesn’t have to come true it doesn’t have to be real if there’s just even one person somewhere saying it should happen then it’s Buzz uh it’s frustrating to me because I really try super hard on the show to give you my perspective and sometimes I feel like listeners will want what are you hearing about this or whatever I’m not g to make it up I mean when it comes to this this is not anything that I’ve heard so I I don’t know what to to to say I guess maybe I would get farther ahead uh in this world if I did come out with stuff like this maybe more people would go sign up for the newsletter at purple insider.com you can you can but uh I’m writing a piece about the kicker for tomorrow and now you know this gets dropped in here so uh Williams says uh once they decided to move on from Kurt Cousins that almost guaranteed they were keeping Justin Jefferson there was no way they were keeping both they just need to get the extension done yeah I agree I mean that’s exactly right is once you move on from kir cousins you’re drafting a quarterback and that’s why I mean that the only scenario where this would have even possibly worked is if you were trading him to another team where you could also draft a quarterback and get Malik neighbors as well which would have just been insane but they seem to instead just follow the exact path that they went down and I mean this makes sense here JP says Malik neighbors was probably one out of a hundred possible scenarios quacy planned if uh they’re in the 20s cool take him that’s it yeah I mean I I don’t know yeah I imagine that you do run through a lot of different scenarios and make a lot of different phone calls and if at some point this came up then I guess maybe it came up uh but what does it mean now I mean to even to put it out right now what is the purpose what is the point it didn’t happen that’s not what they did even if there was some sort of discussion of hey let me throw out and and I do this on the show all the time let me throw out something real crazy and then let’s talk about it let’s see if we let’s have this discussion if that is how this ends up getting out there but then it doesn’t come remotely close to even happening uh then what are we doing then we’re just reporting weeks and weeks later that this was some sort of discussion I mean what is the purpose what is he’s not Malik neighbors isn’t a justtin Jefferson has been traded and every indication is that they’re going to sign him so is it just out there to undermine the negotiations I don’t really understand what even the purpose what what is this like what is this supposed to do hey this one time somebody talked about something like okay I don’t I don’t know and and that’s even giving it the benefit of the doubt that there’s even truth tall rumors anyway uh let’s see uh Bradley says Sam darnold or JJ opening day I would guess Sam darnold at this point um just the way that it looks but we’ve got an OTA practice on Wednesday we’ll have a podcast from there myself and Andrew Kramer will be podcasting from TCO performance center after so we’ll give you all the things that uh happen there um including whether Justin Jefferson shows up uh I doubt it if he doesn’t have an extension uh Dennis says Jefferson wants to win the Vikings are going nowhere this year Well when you sign a four to fiveyear contract extension your expectation is that you are staying with the team for four to five years and trying to win within that window now I’m sure that Justin Jefferson is frustrated by that but if he was asking to be traded why would the Vikings just trade him to a winner right I mean what like does asking to be traded doesn’t guarantee that you go to any team that’s going to be in better shape if you know you’re getting traded to Tennessee or something and and there’s been again nothing to indicate that he’s asked to be traded and when you look at Harrison Smith coming back and Harrison Smith says the other day I think that we’re better than people think we are I don’t I don’t know about that they might not be a great team this year but it’s very easy to see where if JJ McCarthy clicks they can be a good team going forward and it’s not like you drafted some Schmo as your quarterback you drafted a guy who just won the national champion I ship um so I’m not sure that that could really weigh into it for Justin Jefferson and again even if it did the Vikings have all the negotiating power here because of the franchise tags um that’s I’m not going to say that it’s irrelevant when it comes to whether they uh can win this year or not but it’s not the entire story it’s really the uh bigger picture of where the franchise is going to go I would assume would be part part of it for Justin Jefferson but he does have to be unhappy it is a massive failing by the way by the Vikings organization to Come Away with zero playoff wins with Justin Jefferson on his rookie deal and so now they’re going to have to work around this in the future because they made mistakes in the past around him with the roster now they are doing it the right way uh and doing it the right way should be I think a good thing in the negotiations with Justin Jefferson that they’re building their team in a way where they can spend big time next year but also compete this year um you know so I I think they’ve got a better argument for him right now than they would have the last couple years for this team being a legit Contender uh distopian Utopia says Justin Jefferson isn’t going anywhere this is one of the biggest contract negotiations he will ever do in his career because of that he’s taking his time and getting as much as he can well that’s way too reasonable of a take for somebody whose name is dystopian Utopia that sounds kind of dark or metal uh but instead you’re just being like a reasonable person uh but yeah I mean that’s that’s how I’ve always viewed this I’ve always viewed this as let’s look at all the other negotiations that happen there are a couple that have resulted in trades over the years khil Mack and I mean at this age khil Mack but there was also part of that khil Mack trade that had to do with where the Raiders were and there was a cash issue if if I remember being reported I’m not sure about the details of that but there was something involved with did the Raiders actually have the money to give him the cash up front with the guaranteed money the signing bonuses and so forth and uh they I mean got a massive return for khil Mack but I can’t think of too many other examples of this where it’s the player who’s clearly at the top of his craft and ends up getting traded um so I yeah that mean just we don’t see it very much usually these players stay Hunter says Jefferson almost beat the Lions by himself last year put in a top 32 quarterback and they win that game they probably win both games uh with a top 32 quarterback well the defense was pretty bad in the second game so maybe not um Dennis says reality is Jefferson has more in common with Kelvin Johnson than Jerry Rice uh Dennis are you the one trying to get him traded that doesn’t make any sense uh man because well first what like the Lions Kelvin Johnson was playing are not like the Minnesota Vikings organization right now I don’t see that at all uh I the how they function who’s in charge what they’ve done with the roster what they’ve done even at quarterback here moving on from a a good quarterback drafting another one to build around Kelvin Johnson played years ago a different under I think even a different CBA I mean like what are we talking about here uh that’s not and and Jerry Rice who has who who is in Jerry Rice’s air but if you you look at Justin Jefferson’s start to his career it is every bit on par with the great receivers and if we even look at recent performances okay I understand that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl with the greatest quarterback alive but who else has been around the Super Bowl in the last few years a lot of really great wide receivers Jamar Chase AJ Brown has a big contract that didn’t seem to hurt the Philadelphia Eagles from going to the Super Bowl Debo Samuel has a big contract that didn’t seem to hurt the 49ers from going to the Super Bowl Julio Jones went to a Super Bowl and was a 283 lead away from winning that Super Bowl there’s just there’s been a lot of great wide receivers uh to go and have success I mean you can absolutely build your team around uh Justin Jefferson and his contract specifically if you have a rookie quarterback deal which they do um Ron says Jefferson trade rumors are on life Fort and Dead on Arrival yeah it does this one does seem sort of desperate right um this one seems sort of like I promise there was some rumor there was some truth to all rumors I swear just you know banging that drop maybe maybe it’s the last breath before he signs the extension so the people who put this stuff out there can still argue no no no I was right there was truth to those rumors uh that’s that’s the best I can do uh let’s see Dave says I just read T Higgins might not be back there’s a JJ rumor LOL but seriously the NFL owners are not going to allow wide receivers to start making as much as top quarterbacks but they’re not I mean that’s the thing is they’re not they’re not making as much as top quarterbacks uh if Justin Jefferson makes 35 million a year which they might not want to go quite that high I think am Ross St Brown who’s great was at um 28 so if Jefferson is at 33 5 million more per year that still puts him $17 million behind where the top quarterbacks are at the top quarterbacks are 50 million bucks now because in part the salary cap went up so we’ve got to readjust sort of like I was reading about uh fast food prices the other day I used to go to Taco Bell and I could get at Taco Bell a real a real man’s meal for like eight bucks now that’s 13 now there’s a lot of factors at that that you guys can make your own conclusions about but that’s just how it works right so the prices go up as we go along and that’s how the NFL works is the prices go up and every new contract that’s signed it ends up being like man uh this contract set the market whoa how about Kirk Cousins remember when Kirk signed for 84 million guaranteed and he signed I think that was 33 a year or something like that 30 something a year and we kept saying that $30 million quarterback Kirk Cousins that was only six years ago now it’s gone up by 20 million for what these guys are making so if you make 35 million a year as a wide receiver and also you have a salary cap that can be manipulated and you have contracts that could be manipulated so how many years would he actually make 35 mil on the cap look up bosa’s deal look up Brown’s deal AJ Brown not not often and then you can restructure them and you can change them I think even momes has already restructured his deal to create more salary cap space this is going on all the time it’s going on all the time where uh you’re having these guys sign massive deals that on paper look a certain way but in reality do not actually cost your team that much if your ownership is willing to put down the cash which the Vikings ownership in the past has always been willing to do that uh 53 strong says you don’t want Jefferson unhappy it’s time to pay him that’s why you moved on from cousins is uh you because you didn’t want to pay both I mean I of course I agree it’s time to pay him they seem to agree and they keep saying that like yeah it’s time to pay them we’re working on it we’ve talked to their side it’s just that because we’re not that close to the first week of the Season then that’s why it hasn’t gotten done yet as far as I can understand uh as I mean otherwise I think if the deadline was this week then it would be getting done um and you know if he’s putting out you know completely absurd numbers that he wants then the Vikings have to wait and they have to keep negotiating it uh but it just it felt like when qu adaao meno was talking about it at the draft that it was feeling close was how it sounded and that’s the best that I can do with something like this Michael says my best uh my bet is that jet is that where go is I mean he wants to be called Jets I guess I don’t know if I can go there I guess you guys can go there I think I’m just gonna I used to say JJ but now I can’t do that so a jet is fine if you want to go there uh Michael says my bet is that jet gets 36 million plus he knows the salary cap will go up a lot in the next few years with all the TV Revenue doesn’t want to get his contract beat out by anyone the next couple years yeah that’s going to be pretty difficult because of the players who are getting their contracts done hey by the way as we speak isn’t CD lamb also up for an extension why are we not talking about that isn’t Jamar Chase up for an extension and none of these guys have signed their deals yet and they could be waiting on Jefferson or jets if you will they could be waiting on Jefferson they could also be negotiating with their teams at the same time and uh you know be discussing that where where this is going to land and St Brown sets the market and now these guys are going to top it they’re better than St Brown um JP says instead of talking absolute dollars I think it makes more sense to talk percentage of the cap since it’s always going up 15% of the cap makes more sense than throwing out 35 million no you’re right that’s exactly my point is well it’s 15% of the cap depending on what year because the first year might be 8% and the next year might be 12% and it might be three years before they are able to uh you know or not able to before but before the contract actually reaches that point where he’s really expensive and then you’re going to renegotiate it and and you’re going to restructure it and bring down the salary cap like even if you look at Tyreek Hills deal they can restructure and make it like $20 million a year and the Vikings will try to set it up the same the same way uh Dennis says there was no team success and uh that was definitely Justin Jefferson’s fault um no no actually all the success that they had to to show you how valuable he was just look at the 2022 season how or has been over his career how many games do they win in the 2022 season if Justin Jefferson is not on the team is it five I mean he was such a massive part of the offense at times he was the entire offense for that team and he is the reason that you think that JJ McCarthy can succeed because he could do the same thing thing because he has an ability to raise the entire water level of a team which you can only save for a handful of players Tyreek Hill is definitely one of them and Miami paid him with a rookie quarterback contract and led the league in passing and had a great season last year Stefan Diggs goes to Buffalo rookie quarterback contract Josh Allen wins the Division four straight times on on an expensive deal he was not cheap when he was there uh you can definitely do this but you’ve got to do the other parts I mean uh you have to have a quarterback who doesn’t check down on Fourth and eight you’ve got to have a defense that isn’t run by Ed donatell you’ve got to have Mike Zimmer not being insane for an entire season I mean like yeah those things got in the way but uh that’s what you have in Jefferson is not the reason that all those other things went down and really they probably because of him when they were throwing to him they had a good enough offense to beat anybody it was just everything else they didn’t run the ball well the offensive line wasn’t ideal as some of you may have noticed over the years so uh but if you have this player and the other pieces Brian Flores the defense he’s building the other wide receivers Jordan Addison remember Thelen fell off in 2022 if you’ve got a running game if you’ve got an offensive line Jefferson is raising the level of all of that uh that could potentially make them a a Super Bowl contender but nobody could do it alone but of course they don’t pay him the entire salary cap they pay him 10% of it so there nobody thinks that they could do it alone uh for fund says if he holds out uh it only hurts his own cause he will play with or without a new contract let him sweat it out if his agent wants to play games um yeah I mean at the end of the day the Vikings control the cards because that’s the way the players and owners agreed to a collective bargaining agreement it’s not super fair to players on rookie contracts uh rookie contracts in general that uh is not great for the player I mean JJ McCarthy if he’s a top five quarterback in the league making $5 million it’s not fair but that’s how that’s how they negotiated it and the way that they negotiate it is you have a fifth year option and two franchise tags to use on any player they will use them they know that Justin Jefferson’s side knows that and usually usually if a player is really unhappy and is trying to fight the fight then then we’ll hear something about it we’ll hear some noise about it that the player is unhappy with the way that negotiations are going and uh there isn’t a whole lot of indication of that including Jefferson showing up to the Wolves games uh with his friends on the team that doesn’t really look like I want nothing to do with Minnesota um Mark says call me crazy but I’m 0% worried about this extension getting done not that’s not crazy at all that’s not crazy at all um yes Preston it is true they were five and0 when he was hurt last year actually that’s not true that’s not true what what what was their record when they when he was hurt last year they won they won the San Francisco game they won the Green Bay game uh they won against oh yes Atlanta the that crazy game in New Orleans um but they lost against Denver he wasn’t back yet they scored when he got hurt against the Raiders they scored three points won that game I mean look that we know what he does we know what he does we don’t have to debate that I mean that would be just idiotic to debate how good he is he’s the best wide receiver in the game um and his impact is massive they were able to survive as an offense at times but it was shortlived when they did and when he came back he made Nick Mullins into a star for a couple games where if he doesn’t you know if he doesn’t uh throw that bad interception at the end we are talking about that as a legendary performance that may have gotten the Vikings into the playoffs so but there’s yeah there’s really no conversation about like whether he’s great or not he’s absolutely great um it really is just when is it gonna be what is it going to take and and really does this thing actually get ugly because as dismissive as I’m being of a rumor about something that was a conversation weeks ago on draft night that’s just coming out now with the word Buzz to it sorry if I’m not you know posting that on on the purple insider.com right away but there is a possibility that it could get ugly and we’ll know when that happens it gets 10% ugly if it’s not mandatory mini camp because then they can find him if he’s not there and then it could get more and more ugly as we go into training camp and that’s where this is probably a preview of the nonsense that is going to happen if he’s not there on the first day of training camp after signing a contract extension uh JP says the longer Jets Waits the more he gets paid so who’s taking so much time to get this done probably not the Vikings yeah no I’m sure it’s his side uh that is trying to eek out whatever other details because again they don’t have to do this uh right away so um you know but uh what you’re talking about both sides have every reason to try to get as much out of this as they can the Vikings want to try to you know not break the bank completely and explode the market completely and Justin Jefferson does want want to blow up the the market completely so uh anyway we’ve got about five minutes until tip off for the Wolves so any other questions I am happy to answer uh for funds says he’ll get extended and most likely worked out but could be waiting for other wide receivers like Chase to commit first JJ ‘s numbers might adjust slightly so he’s the top paid could be could be uh it’s just normally that there’s a lot of details that have to get done when it comes to these negotiations and I feel like I’ve been saying that over and over since really last year but it’s the fact of the matter is that the sides are going to have what they want for this deal and they’re gonna they they’ve been talking about it according to quacy adaao Mena and then you get to to some point where it’s like all right we got to get this done like this weekend it’s got to get done lock ourselves in a room because they’ve been talking about it for so long let’s work this out and that to me is right before training camp I don’t like the idea of Jefferson missing mandatory mini camp you’d like him to be out there with Sam darnold however knowing that it’s Sam darnold as their starting quarterback right now and we’ll see what happens through mini camp but as far as what we saw from OTAs I’m less concerned about that uh because Sam darnold has been a quarterback in the league before so if he shows up and it’s a training camp he’ll be fine figuring out how to throw to Justin Jefferson he’s done this many times if they were planning on starting McCarthy then I would have maybe preferred that he was here for mandatory mini camp to get that rolling right away but it’s a long training camp it’s a long summer that still got to play out from here so there’s nothing uh else that they should do than wait and and uh as far as what they would get if they tried to trade Jefferson I I mean I imagine it’s a couple draft picks couple first round picks um probably similar to the ballpark that Tyreek Hill got there has to be a team who’s willing to just give up a lot of their future draft Capital but why would you do that H why would you try to get first round draft picks when you can just have the best player at his position in the league and then fill out the rest of that around him uh this is a championship player that you’re really not going to win a whole heck of a lot if you don’t have Hall of Fame caliber players go back through Super Bowl winners team that go to the Super Bowl they have Superstar level Talent they don’t they don’t just have like a bunch of guys who are pretty good so you’re and if you’re trading for firsts but you give the team the other team Jefferson those aren’t great firsts probably if you know when you trade and uh it turned out to be just a Jefferson with you know the bills and all that but uh the bills became very good after after that so if the bills had given up you know three firsts or something for Diggs then they wouldn’t have been very good firsts after that because they got good if you trade Jefferson to someone you’re not getting great first round draft picks uh but it’s not worth talking about until we have to and I really don’t feel like right now is the moment that we have to talk about this so we will see on Wednesday if Justin Jefferson is here um uh I don’t know if he will be or not I don’t know if they’ll get an extension done it would be really nice really nice to wake up on Monday morning do an emergency podcast talking about Jefferson’s deal and then not have to have this conversation about rumors ever again uh and Hunter makes a point uh to everyone who suggests trading Jefferson was it smart of the Vikings to let Randy Moss go uh not so much not so much so anyway uh enjoy the wolves game as far as a prediction I I don’t know I don’t know no you didn’t Caleb you didn’t touch a nerve it just doesn’t make any sense to trade Justin Jefferson that’s all it just doesn’t um there are very few players in the league who you could trade them one for one for that would carry that type of value and trading for draft picks I don’t know uh you know sometimes draft picks work out and sometimes they turn into Mike Hughes if they’re late round picks or Lewis seen and if they traded Justin Jefferson for a couple of first round picks and those picks didn’t turn out to be great then you just gave away the best player in the league at his prime who could help you win over the next five years for nothing uh I don’t think that you want to take that risk anyway all right I have no idea who’s gonna win hopefully it’s the Wolves I want a good series thanks everybody for watching listening and we’ll talk to you all later appreciate it 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