2024 NFL Cutdown Day and what it means for the Vikings, Purple Punishments | TSH Ep. 55

[Music] all right hey Vikings fans welcome into another episode of the skull hop I'm Evan I'm Austin we're just a couple of dudes from Iowa we like talking about the Vikings and drinking beard yeah we do but before we can do any of that uh we got to say thank you to our sponsors Big Top Ventures uh if you're looking to take a trip to an all-inclusive in Mexico or Jamaica go ahead and we'll put their email address down below go ahead and send an email just kind of saying you're looking for pricing um and maybe dates you're looking for uh their email address is Big Top Ventures llc@gmail.com uh yeah just send them a quick email they'll get back to you really quick like honestly like annoyingly fast maybe within minutes um kind of give you a quote or maybe ask you exactly what you're looking for and then give you a quote uh but you should be surprised with the the pricing they're able to give you they've been great sponsors for us for a while now we should probably know exactly how long they've been they've been going with us we could go back and figure it out I don't have a number off the top of my head but it's it's a number that we could find yeah I feel like it was during the 23 season that we started so it's been quite a while yeah uh probably pushing we we'll be pushing the year mark we we'll say when we've been a full year partner with big top Ventures but either way they're great send them an email they'll they'll work with you and you can go to an all-inclusive in Mexico or Jamaica there you go we also need to mention really quick before we do anything else um You probably heard if you've listened to us in the past handful of weeks but in case you haven't uh we are up for several Awards yeah three of them I think at the Iowa podcast Awards coming up September 15th um so we're going to put another link below here to an uh a website Iowa podcast awards.com back SL vote and uh we would covet your votes for the People's Choice Award that's one of the three awards that we are currently in the running for um we're also in the running for the emerging podcast award and the best sports podcast award yes I think you nailed it right there and in addition to those three awards that we're in the running for we get the privilege of recording an episode live at the Iowa podcast Awards so we will be recording episode I think it's 58 yeah I think so episode 58 live from Cedar Rapids Iowa at the Iowa podcast Awards so when you listen to us uh for episode 58 that will be a live episode it's also week two of the regular season and we've got the 3:00 slot so we're going to be like pulling out our phones and seeing how the end of the the 49ers game turns out yeah I don't know what I hope for more like a a quick run heavy game where it ends at like 2:45 so we're all ready to go or if I just hope it's an a double overtime game where our entire 45 minute slot is just us live reacting to the Vikings game happening hopefully being really excited um but I don't know either way it'll be exciting what'll probably end up happening is we'll the first couple of minutes of our our time slot will be the last couple of minutes of the the Vikings game and hopefully we get to be super pumped and I'm hoping there's a crowd we can get them really excited and be really excited about a two and0 Vikings at that point but uh we'll see if that's wouldn't that be nice that'd be amazing I don't think either of us on our our pick thems predicted that but it would be really cool I actually think the 49ers game might be my lock to lose it is your lock to lose and I have it as a loss too we both have them winning uh week one at New York at the Giants yeah okay and then we both have them losing against the ners at home oh okay well hey that brings up kind of another point that we haven't talked about um we're going to do our purple punishment segment which we need to finalize like probably tonight or whatever um but theoretically we should be doing that segment during the live episode you correct and again to go over our upcoming purple punishment segment we're going to be taking our season long picks that we made a couple episodes ago episode I think 53 or something is maybe 51 when we made those picks um we're going to be taking those picks and regardless of a Vikings win or loss if Evan or I get our pick whether you know we pick them to win or lose if we get that wrong then we'll be spinning a virtual wheel of punishments that we will do right on that episode uh I think we probably maybe need to like plan like a specific punishment to have prepared for the the podcast Awards if any either us get that wrong sounds like if one of us gets it wrong we both get it wrong right we both pick the the Vikings to lose yeah so if we the way I envisioned it working on air production meeting quick let's go um we we can establish rules let's say we both pick that they will lose and the Vikings end up winning the game then we both have to spin the wheel yes now if we have different picks and one of us is correct but the other one is incorrect then only the one that's incorrect SPS the wheel correct so if both of us are incorrect yes we spin the wheel both of us if only one of us is incorrect yeah and if both of us are correct then we then yeah we neither of us have to spin the wheel um but I think you just said we both picked the Vikings to lose that 49ers game I know we are actual Vikings fans but we know they're not going to go undefeated this year uh but if so this could get really interesting if the Vikings win that 49ers game we would have to perform a purle punishment we might have to like shave Our Heads live or something oh and that's my lock too and that was supposed to be like an even crazier one um maybe we should have a punishment prepared for that episode outside of the wheel so that we can I don't know if it's eat a habanero so that we can bring Habaneros with us or something it'll be something along that lines of something we can do right away maybe be an entertainment value thing so we'll have to talk about that um as well as finalize our our punishments there but all that to say please we would be honored if you would vote for us for the People's Choice Awards again that's Iowa podcast awards.com vote um and they say you can only vote once um but if you if you play around you might be able to submit multiple votes um you can also vote for more than one podcast you can vote vote for up to three podcasts at a time and there's a few other ones that we've voted for too so definitely we'd be honored if you vote for us um if not we're still excited about that that event I would add to you don't have to live in Iowa to vote for us uh in that People's Choice category so uh it's open to anybody outside of the state of Iowa and inside of course yeah um so yeah we would definitely love it if you would give us a vote yeah all right what's our beer this week EV yeah so I went to the store uh our our usug yep the devil's Glenn hi and I saw one on the shelf that had seen at all from a brewery that we got to visit on our Brew hop yeah so this is gelig brewing company's Amber logger so pretty cool can art I would say it's kind of got like that uh 70s vibe to it it kind of reminds me of That 70s Show I was going to say Eric Foreman might have stolen this beer out of his dad's fridge at one point and here's what I'm going to say and we can we can open these pour them up um so you know we're entering into The Fall season and with the fall season comes special fall beverages like you know the pumpkin spice latte I think that just came out recently did it I oh yeah I think so cuz I think my wife who's a teacher on one of their recent training days tried to go to Starbucks and it happened to be the first day of pum pumpkin spice latte and it was packed they couldn't even get Starbucks that morning PSL day well just like a white girl loves her psls I love a good Amber Beer yeah and so when I saw it on the Shelf I was like I gotta I got to get this maybe we should have if you're watching us on YouTube Spotify maybe you can vote for who you think had the better pore I get a lot of grief for having a heavy pore but Evan you made that beer look flat that's true mine I've got a good solid amount of head retention there this beer is like literally amber in color it's there is no other way around it it's slight slightly hazy but not I don't know it looks pretty clear very Amber I'm excited to try it what did I cut you off from saying oh I was just going to say that was a really good pour and the we're what 60 seconds in now and you still have a nice foamy head there so yeah I'm I'm I'm going to die on my hill and say I have a good pore I a heavy pore is a good pore I'll sko to that skull SK m I like that so I'll read the description quick uh they say on the can we are resurrecting this once IND dangered beer style pulled straight from the 70s with its nice biscuit and caramel malt base and that describes it pretty well you can taste the biscuit you can taste the the caramel maltiness in it yeah I was going to say I got you know obviously the the ambery you know darker is flavor to it but there is a sweetness which I think that's the the caramelized sweetness that you're getting I shocking I like this one a lot um you're the Amber guy I'm the IPA guy but I think we both appreciate all types of beer I I like it I cut you off again what are your thoughts you just you said it all we have similar thoughts um yeah I like it a lot very very balanced I don't I don't think it's trying to do too much in any One Direction it's not overly sweet um it's not overly malty it's just it's good it's a solid beer and I like a beer that doesn't try to do too much exactly I would think both of us while we're fans of kind of beers going a little crazy and doing something different we also we like beer beers you know like solid you know different categories this is a solid Amber's Amber you know this is a solid beer beer I like it a lot I think it does kind of remind the can art is you know it's a good representation of what's in this beer it's kind of if you can imagine what that beer looks like just from looking on the can or what it tastes like you're probably pretty right I don't know it's it's good it's I forget his name but the dad on That 70s Show Red Foreman red there you go oh it's red right this is this is Red's beer right here so if Red Foreman were to go to the fridge and he wasn't going to drink the standard domestic whatever he was drinking at the time Miller Light or whatever he'd probably pull one of these out yeah good job gazelle uh I've never had a bad gazic beer but yeah this one is better than I thought and it's 6% which is you know not too much not too little it tastes like a lighter beer than 6% and I mean this as a compliment it does not taste like you should be careful with that which you should be careful with all beers and all alcohols obviously drink in moderation but like this one definitely if I had to guess if we were still doing the mystery segments and you brought it to me and I was doing the the ABV I probably would have guessed like 48 or something like that yeah it seems low yeah which again I mean this as a compliment it tastes lighter and more refreshing than your average 6% non citrus IPA would taste so yeah good job gazel yeah I like it and I'm excited to finish a few of these tonight yeah we got a couple although I challenge you have a better por next time EV all right I'll do my best when we open the second one here okay we'll pause whatever we're talking about and I'll I can port for it if you want or you can just walk me through it it's it's not that hard just pour it right all right we've got a lot to cover tonight because we have the third preseason game the third and final preseason game against the Eagles that we've got to cover um and we've got a nice little article from Dustin Baker to kind of recap some of the some of the things some of the highlights from that game and then today at 300 p.m. 400 p.m. sometime this afternoon was 4 4 Eastern 4 Eastern so 3:00 3:00 our time Central Time uh was cut down so every team had to get down to their 53 man roster yeah so uh kind of a big day a lot of players that we've seen play in those preseason games um some players that we've seen play for the Vikings for a few years now are no longer on the roster yeah you could this might be a little Preposterous to say but you could argue today is more important than draft day yeah uh it's the day that teams at least the initial 53 man roster is set for each team now what goes along with that is there's a whole another day of waivers and something like a thousand players just became available to every team because they were just released from their current team uh so there's going to be other moves you know teams are going to pick up guys that were cut and then they'll have to cut guys that they initially kept so we'll kind of talk about that too but today and the next probably two days are pretty big in forming that first week roster um and seeing how you look the season it's an earthquake that sends shock waves kind of in several different directions and across the entire league too so let's cover the preseason game first let's just kind of hit some of the highlights there um we actually got to watch kind of kind of watch yeah we yeah together uh it was on in the background we had it on on your phone while we were doing a little skull hot business meeting and had some lunch together which was nice um what were some of your highlights from the game so kind of to to remember everything that went on uh we went to our favorite Vikings website uh Viking territory.com and as they always do after each Vikings game they had a nice uh quick snap reaction article about that that game so uh going off some of the points they wrote down plus our own feedback um yeah I think uh it it was a good game overall obviously they won but preseason doesn't matter um this is the first season that KOC has has won any preseason game he had never won yeah and the Vikings didn't win one in zimmers last year so it's been a handful of years since the Vikings have won a preseason game again it doesn't matter you're not trying to win in preseason you're trying to win a play in preseason or see how guys look in different spots but it is nice to see a win um some of the points that I think it was Dustin Baker that wrote that SN reaction article on Vikings territory.com some of the points he pointed out that uh Tristian Jack he's he's actually probably pretty good uh he scored in each preseason game which is no small feat um and as a receiver yeah again the whole caveat preseason is if you look good oh who cares you're only going against fourth stringers and guys who won't be in the NFL but if you look bad then oh my gosh you're the worst uh but Tristian Jackson he looked good and I mean he caught the ball when he was supposed to and I mean it's not always you it's just you in the ball when you're trying to catch the ball so he caught the ball he scored in each preseason game he seems to have carved a roll out for him on the team and as we'll talk later he he made the 53 man roster uh so yeah we can be excited about Tristan Jackson right now yeah I think another interesting thing was and I think maybe Dustin put this at number three in his article because it has to do with quarterback three sure um would be jiren Hall wrapping up that qb3 job I think going in into the preseason before JJ McCarthy got hurt I think we all would have said oh he's the first man out yeah and of course JJ McCarthy's injury makes room for a guy like jiren Hall but he's banged up too a little bit he kind of got roughed up a little bit in the preseason game um and that's Dustin's fourth snap reaction here that he did get banged up a little bit in the third quarter of that preseason game and that's something worth noting because this whole summer has been kind of blow after blow to the Vikings team either you know whether it's injury or the tragedy that happened with Kyrie Jackson and uh several other things so um to go into the season one with three quarterbacks instead of two I think is interesting and I think that's a move that um quacy and KOC are making because they're a little conservative based on what happened previously with like last year with Kurt Cousins going down and um needing to have as many quarterbacks as possible on the roster to just keep that position filled and then interesting that um things have developed to a point where Jaren Hall is the guy for now unless something kind of some something is a stir uh across the league in the next couple of days and maybe he's released and maybe someone else has signed or something like that the guy is in that emergency third quarterback yeah yeah yep um yeah and I mean at least against the Eagles and really kind of all preseason jiren Hall has looked pretty good when he's been on the field not not a Hall of Famer but I mean for a guy that probably doesn't get a ton of practice reps there's not a lot of expectations um he in his spot you really could see guys kind of like fumble the ball away so to speak when they get their opportunities but he took every opportunity and he looked pretty good um I I think to your point I think if JJ McCarthy hadn't have been injured they still would have kept three quarterbacks but it probably overwhelmingly would have looked uh Sam darnold JJ McCarthy and then Nick Mullins unless they were able for some reason to get some trade value out of one of the quarterbacks probably Nick Mullen then than it might have been jiren Hall but yeah I think uh JJ's injury was ex extremely unfortunate for him and definitely for the team but it definitely opened some doors for other guys to have opportunities and jiren Hall looks like he's going to get at least one more season to be with KOC in that quarterback room to develop a little bit more and maybe turn into something more later in his career yeah uh will rikard's looking pretty good too yeah he just keeps making kicks uh again the only kick he missed so far in his NFL career um has been that blocked kick in the first game against the Raiders which again I've said every time we're not kicking experts I don't think that we could point out or say if there's anything else he could have done to make sure that wasn't a block kick but either way usually block kicks are not the kicker's fault um and he made every single other kick out there again I am not a kicking expert I I can't even get the ball up if I ever tried to kick a field goal it rolls I don't get air uh but I will say it kind of looks like he does have like a line drive like just a straight bullet of a kick um and I don't know if that's good or bad maybe I prefer the high arching the look of a high arching kick again I don't know what I'm talking about he's made every kick and we just get to be excited about a kicker that makes every kick that 57 y that he drilled though in this preseason game against the Eagles that was more of that line drive type of kick and that could be one of the reasons why one of his earlier kicks was blocked just it didn't have the lift to get up and over the line that's reaching up and they're probably getting elevation of you know 7 and 1/2 8 ft 9 ft depending on how high some of those guys can jump and how tall they are that's my only uneducated concern is is if he's not doing that high archant kick like you were just saying is it something that could be easier to block now on the one that did get blocked it was kind of the line just got blown up and it wasn't some guy jumped 12 feet in the air and blocked it um but yeah I I think one thing we can take some excitement if you're not already excited about will rikard is he definitely seems to he's got the college pedigree he you know he's he is good he's shown that he's good and he's got the physicality to be a good kicker so if he does seem like one that if he ever starts missing a couple it wouldn't be crazy to think the Vikings could bring somebody in a kicking expert to kind of tweak his technique or if the you know special teams coaches can kind of tweak his technique if possible if necessary and he's still got the physical attributes to be able to be a good kicker either way I think we can be excited yeah for sure and let's hope that he's the most consistent Vikings kicker that we've had in a while and let's hope that he's mentally stable enough to weather the storm when it comes to missing a few and CU he's going to miss some at some point he's going to get cold at some point so hopefully they can figure it out yep all right I guess one of the last points I wrote down from this article was uh Levi Drake Rodriguez he still continues to look good I mean he's not the next coming of Aaron Donald nobody is um I think I just saw something recently how Aaron Donald uh beat lesea McCoy in a foot race recently and Aaron Donald was wearing like jeans um but anyways Levi Drake Rodriguez he's not the next coming Aaron Donald but he is a seventh round pick that again we'll talk about a little bit later he made the 53 man roster and and he looked good while doing it and he seems like a good dude seems like an exciting dude I wouldn't be surprised um if the team started pushing him out more to the media especially if he gets some playing time um because he does seem they've already kind of pushed him out a little bit to the media and for interviews and stuff so uh that's exciting I'm a fan of him and I'm glad he made the team and it's not for not like he he actually is good he's proven that he needed to make the team kind of like a Ivan Pace type of set up from last year just that undrafted free agent and or was he eighth seventh round Levi ldr Levi Drake Ry yes he was a seventh round pick I'm pretty sure he was the last pick for the Vikings in this draft but yeah Ian Pace but still yeah very very far back in the draft um you never know what you're going to get out of players when you're drafting that late but man Vikings have figured something out there and that's exciting yeah you could argue quy is better at getting these late round or undrafted guys at getting the high round or the first round guys so hopefully that's not that won't be the case with the quarterback they just got in April but yeah I mean it is nice it's it's almost like a free player when when you can get a a not even just a starting level quality but a a roster making quality player in the seventh sixth undrafted free agency it's it is nice to to know that there is gold out there and quacy and the coaching staff and the Scouts have seemed to have figured out some kind of a a way to identify those those high value uh prospects in the late rounds there you go well uh let's transition into this 53 man roster that was somewhat finalized today I mean obviously as we're speaking right now on the evening of August 27th at 900 p.m. um I mean we we have a lot of new information to work with but the 53 man roster will morph and change before we get to week one against the Giants in just a few weeks yeah but at least we know who for the most part who won't be on the 53 yeah so let's start there let's start with uh some surprise Cuts who are some players that you saw that are on that list of Vikings that are no longer Vikings at least for now I think both of us would agree maybe not the biggest surprise but kind of the biggest disappointment as a player so far was they did end up finally pulling the trigger and cutting Le scene yeah uh qu's first first round pick um and he yeah he had a pretty big injury in his rookie year but we hadn't seen anything from him before that injury and I I just couldn't figure out other words to say other than that um and he just never really did anything to get opportunities to get on the field you could argue the safety position is one of the strongest on the team um but when guys like Cam bham and Josh matelis really flourish into starting quality players it really doesn't give anybody an opportunity let alone kind of a disappointing rookie or young player I saw a tweet somewhere this afternoon that basically just said it was time it was time for both louisine and the Vikings it was time for player and organization to just officially separate themselves um the Vikings need to move on and allow those guys to flourish and louisine needs to move on to give himself better opportunities to find success elsewhere um obviously the safety room is crowded in Minnesota right now and that's just that's not a good spot for him to be if he wants playing time yeah and wants a long-term contract so and and while I think leis scene not panning out and to that matter Andrew Booth neither of them really panned out to be anything good for the Vikings neither of them are Vikings anymore I think that is a huge negative on quacy um but a small Silver Lining to both of those is that quacy did have the the coones to man up and say you know what not working I don't care if you're were a first or second round pick uh my bad I just we can't keep doubling down and throwing bad money at bad players we got to open up the door for for better opportunity players and Booth did make the 53 man in Dallas which is kind of interesting too but also did you see him in the preseason games he did not look that great I think he had one ball batted down that was like oh that was a good play but other than that he just kept getting burned and he didn't look good uh not to crap on a guy I've never met and he has no way to you know defend himself against me right now not that he ever has to but I mean he's neither of them are NFL quality football players which neither am I not even I can't even kick a ball off the ground two feet so um well anyways uh I think you're absolutely right there's a ton of safety depth already um neither of those guys fit and yeah you wish leisen the best and just like Andrew Booth leisen will be on a roster probably in the next couple of days and he'll he'll at least get one more shot I mean being a first round pick does get you a long leash even if your first team you know cuts that leash so somebody will pick him up and who knows maybe he just needed a different kind of coach or a different scheme I don't know Louis seen like he's obviously physically gifted there's a reason he was a first round pick um so I don't know and he splashed a little bit in the Eagles game he looked okay and even the game before that well the the Browns game he looked really good yeah for a few plays but even so like I I saw um Vikes now had they've been putting out some videos of like every snap from this player and before each play they'll they'll kind of circle that player outside of the couple of Splash plays for louisine he did a lot of like walk in and then the play would end and he'd kind of jog away like and that's the nature of the safety position too it's a safety you know valve in the back end of the defense but he didn't look like an elite player on he's not the magnet to the ball like Harrison Smith or Josh matelis yeah can't bind him but yeah Evan who is your biggest surprise cut I think uh in addition to louisine which is surprising in some ways but also not surprising uh Ken nangu yeah is one of those where you're just like wow this guy's been on the team for a few years now uh kind of seemed like he had established himself well in the kick return role and running back three and I felt like he had a pretty strong preseason he looked really good um I think the biggest knock on him is pass protection he's just a little undersized and doesn't excel in that area but man he's got a lot of natural speed a lot of downhill speed um he gets free uh probably not going to catch him and that's and that's why he's established himself so well as a kick returner um I was really hoping after a a solid preseason from him that he'd remain on the roster as he had but uh quacy and KOC must have seen something different yeah um and that whole running back room they they have two Bonafide running backs on the roster as of this moment um again we know there's no perfect time to record that this episode so we very well may be totally outdated by the time you're listening to this in the next day or so but I mean right now you got to think they're going to have they're going to enter week one against the Giants with more than just uh Aaron Jones and and Tai Chandler at the running back position the only caveat to that is I think you get a lot more uh contract flexibility if you sign a guy after week one so maybe there's a chance they go into week one with just those two guys but definitely they won't be going against the 49ers with just those two guys uh you did make the point um K is not the greatest pass protector um and before we started recording we are CJ ham fans I think very clear about that but you even made the point like it's kind of interesting that they let K go while CJ Ham's still on the roster a guy that doesn't do a lot of stat sheet plays he he he's a good blocker and he he is vital to the team on the plays he's in there but as far as stat sheet he's not making a big splash um and he's definitely a locker room guy like you can definitely see in a lot of the postgame stuff and pregame stuff like he's a very active member of the team yeah so and again we're big fans of him I'm not mad that he's on the roster but it is a like a chin scratcher a little bit like man we had so many running back issues last year too and yet here we are with two running backs and a fullback and the fullback position just isn't really used and since KOC has taken over the offense the fullback position has I feel like shrunk even more yeah now the caveat to that is um the Vikings website their official website the article that they put out kind of announcing the 53 man roster or the initial 53 man roster by Craig Peters um when he lists out that CJ ham made the team he had a little sentence here that you know some of the good things he did um but he also highlighted that he helped out with pass protection and third Downs last season and really throughout his career uh but maybe that pass protection ability um at least for the initial 53 man roster was more valuable to the coaches than K's potential breakout ability every once in a while um which we've only seen a couple of times in the preseason outside of the kick return game it's a good point we're going to interrupt and we're going to pour another beer yeah and you can judge me on my pore you ready all right so what's the strategy just tell me just just do it right just I don't know just just pour your beer right just no that's what you told me not like a heavy pour like I I mean you're going to get where you need to go with that but it's going to take you a lot longer um if you're watching this please pull us up on YouTube and this looks like a root beer float it does I mean it's got that's the best uh foam you've had I don't know you got to you just got to pour it right oh and now I just spilled over the to you got paper towels don't you I do somewhere oh man or wipes I've got wipes there you go Clorox wipes not a sponsor you know it's it yet uh it's really hard to be an NFL running back it's also so apparently really hard to have a good beer pour so um yeah just just do it right F I don't know I'll keep working on it yeah plenty of practice that's there's always another beer I would like to point out that this one of mine was better than yours yeah I also didn't spill all over the Skull Man Center though at least I clean out my messes all right well K wongu was your surprise cut my surprise cut which ultimately isn't a huge world- breaking surprise I understand that but for me it was a little surprising uh was that Bo RoR didn't make the squad yeah that was interesting you know mini JJ Watt um definitely seemed like a good guy which yeah being a good guy does not automatically give you a roster spot in the NFL um but he also made some splashy plays um kind of slowed down after the Raiders game but still didn't completely disappear um and I know his position position group that outside linebacker group is a very crowded position group for the Vikings right now um we could list out everybody we don't have to but it would have been hard for him to make the team over some of the other guys and I guess for me that is a little surprising that he uh he couldn't beat out some of the other guys he looked the part for a minute can we just take a minute to appreciate how awesome it would have been to have him on the team and be able to like talk about like okay on the RoR scale how awesome was that well so the dream is not dead because I I do expect him unless some other team uh Snipes him up and signs him to their 53 man roster um I would fully expect the Vikings to keep him around on the practice squad uh which I mean guys can get elevated to game day rosters from the practice squad you can if you're on any practice squad you can be signed any team at any moment so they could be signing him to the 53 anytime but I I I would bet money that we have not seen the last of Bo RoR in Minnesota uh and that the only reason we wouldn't is if somebody else sniped him couple other names on the cut list that maybe aren't as surprising as Ken or uh bo RoR Dallas Gant yeah he seemed to be doing really well he seemed to have a really good preseason he has been waved as of today and Robert tanion was another name kind of a splashy signing kind of made the rounds through the NFC North I know you were a little like n he's probably not as as we think he is he's one of my least surprised Cuts I don't I don't especially when he got hurt um pretty early on I I just didn't expect him really to make the team I thought he was just like a a quick like oh we need to fill this tight end room TJ is not going to be there let's get some guys that I mean tanion he's had some success in the NFL uh obviously the one year he had 10 or 11 touchdowns with the Packers um but really that's it like it hasn't really done anything else but I know a lot of people were excited about tunan they've seen him do some things uh I I wish I would have bet on that I don't know if I could have anywhere but I would have made money saying he wouldn't have made the team um yeah I guess Desa Jones I'm hoping to see him back the wide receiver hoping to see him back on the practice squad uh the team obviously liked him a lot they gave him one of the bigger uh guarantees for undrafted free agents um not only for just the Vikings but for everyone around the league um yeah I don't know I I agree with Dallas Gant um I think we'll see him again on the practice squad and Andre Carter uh he made the team last year um but which leads me to believe he might be another practice squad sigy there you go all right what about uh your surprise like non-cut or a player that made the team that you're like yeah that's we kind of already talked about CJ ham a little bit like yeah we're glad he's on the team but it is kind of interesting that uh the Vikings prioritized a fullback SL special teams specialist over some other positions yeah so I guess this kind of doesn't count but it's the best I can really do uh for me at this point it is um Dalton ryzer true I mean you you signed him and he was surprisingly available for the second year in a row pretty deep into free agency uh but you sign him to next to nothing which was surprising in itself and then he never we all just expected him to be right you know listed right there as let starter at left guard and never really said he was taking first string reps in practice definitely not in any games um I think he's been lowkey injured um as evidenced by he's on the the injured reserve right now um which is why this kind of doesn't count because he he's on the on the team but he's not on the 53 man roster because he was placed on injured reserve now he's one of the ones that is designated to return so he has to miss four games uh but if he's healthy after those four games he can come back onto the 53 man roster um but I don't know maybe he's just had this injury and the Vikings have known about it and that's why they were able to get him for so cheap and that's why he hasn't really been doing anything all offseason that we've seen or heard about um and then obviously he's not you know healthy on the 53 man roster right now so I guess because of the injury it's not as surprising but during the whole offseason it's like why why is he here if you're not using him especially after he won the starting job last year and and you kind of helped clarify this for me because I guess I didn't really fully understand um before we started recording tonight but so players like Dalton Ryner and TJ hawis and I think what is it Gabriel Murphy um those guys are they have kind of like injury designations Gabriel Murphy and Dalton Ryner are IR designated to return and then TJ is on like a pre season pup list right physically unable to perform so all of those guys have the opportunity to come back and play and when they do come if and when they do come back they would displace someone else from the 53 man so they currently don't count towards the 53 man roster mhm and let's say TJ hawson comes back we would expect him to um that means that likely Nick Muse or Johnny Mt is the the lowest man on the totem pole and they get bumped to the practice squad or they get cut from the team or whatever and TJ steps into that tight end one role yep um so it is interesting as you were saying coming back to Ryner that he he's still kind of around he doesn't necessarily count towards the 53-man roster but the Vikings haven't completely severed ties with him e either yeah and that gives me hope that hopefully he'll come back and um we can see what else he can do obviously we know he's a good pass uh protection guy um and I think he's worth keeping around even for that even if uh who's the guy I'm now blanking on his name uh Blake brandelle that's it yeah I just had a brain fart there but brandell kind of won seemingly won the starting job over Ryner yeah even though Ryner started most of last year at that position um but yeah it'd be good to I I would like to see him around um and see him kind of get cycled in on some of those pass protection type of schemes and stuff so and this is I mean pure speculation on my part but I I really think after this offseason that we've seen of Ryner I think he's been hurt I think he may have finished up last season with a nagging injury that maybe needed surgery for him maybe he got that I don't know I again pure speculation I have no idea no reason to believe this truthfully but I mean he has had the offseason of guy that is not healthy we haven't seen him in with the ones or even the twos very much that that we've heard about um it just seems like maybe he's been banged up and teams have known it and that's why he wasn't signed anywhere um and then the Vikings may have known about that injury and been comfortable with it but still took the leverage and signed him into a lower deal um I just that's that's the only thing that makes sense in my head is that he's been hurt this whole time and he's everybody's known maybe he's going to be on IR to start the season but either way like you said he played well last year when he came in he's not a perfect player he does have weaknesses but he's still better than probably the likes of Dan feny or Michael Jurgens like not nothing against those guys but like I mean neither of them were the starting left guard for the Vikings last year yeah I think uh my surprise uncut and I'm kind of taking uh taking a page out of your book a little bit actually first let me just say I feel like you kind of cheated withon Ryner there absolutely did U because he's not on the 53 man roster he he's designated to return perhaps but the player I'm about to mention did in fact make the 53 man roster and I'm going take I'm taking a page out of your book because I feel like you've mentioned this player in the last few weeks kind of like tongue and cheek injest like oh yeah did I just say his name a minute ago maybe Fabian Maro oh no I haven't said his name okay so Fabian Maro like who's that guy I don't even know that's that's why I'm surprised that he's on the team um and we've already talked about how crowded the defensive back position is and like looking at this list of players that was cut nwn Wright y um you've got Duke Shelly who has history with the team yeah like couple other guys that like okay are we saying are we saying Fabian Maro is better than him and I don't know Fabian maro's history I know he was brought in I think he's played a few seasons in the NFL I don't think he's a rookie yeah when we talked to Dustin Baker shortly after Fabian was signed Dustin Baker seemed to sound like a guy who's heard fabian's name before um this could just be a blind spot on both of our ends here maybe there is maybe fabian's more wellknown than either of us have ever really given him credit for but he was if you remember Fabian like the day after he was signed was already getting first string reps with the defense it's like oh this guy apparently they like him so yeah so I'm looking I'm looking at him on pro football reference right now he started most games for uh Washington in his career in Washington he's got uh seven career interceptions no touchdowns and a good amount of tackles almost 300 tackles on his career okay um started in 2017 so he's been in the league for for what six years now yeah Seven Seasons a guy that has been around the NFL for a little bit so uh I agree with you I'm a little surprised he's on the roster but I mean if he's a solid cornerback I'm not mad about it um same with Dwight mcln U I think he was the other undrafted free agent that made the team that or maybe he was the only one that made he seemed to Splash a little bit in preseason though had some splashy plays had some good tackles I think he had a didn't he have a pick six or near pick six it was almost a pick six was like 90 something yard yeah against the the Browns yeah yeah so like that a little more like oh okay like yeah he had a few plays I don't I I can't point to a single play of yeah oh Maro yeah I think it's just he might be just a guy that isn't an idiot as a cornerback so he made it over other guys not that the other guys like AJ or Duke Shelly are idiots but and to be fair I'm not mad about it I'm I'm hopeful that he can make some plays and maybe get a few picks maybe get a touchdown on his record that'd be awesome but yeah and as we've already said this will likely change oh yeah we're probably already outdated listeners you can probably say like what are they talking about Maro for they sign this other guy you know like it's likely to happen um but it probably won't change a whole l lot they're not going to sign 15 other guys uh and they will you know officially set their practice squad here in the next couple of days so um yeah still exciting roster things to keep an eye on in the next few days um and then we got a game we're we're already talking about games here shortly against the Giants uh the first NFL game I think it's who is it the Ravens and Chiefs playing a Thursday or two uh coming up I haven't even paid attention to that I know the Vikings schedule pretty well but I don't know the rest of the NFL schedule but either way we're we're coming up on week one we're super excited um and I think next week uh next skull Hop episode we're going to have Dustin Baker on which he can probably give us a little bit more insight in some of these guys on the initial 53 as well as any guys that they they end up signing between now and then and should be exciting it should be exciting and it will be exciting yeah really quick I guess um we are still looking for punishments to add to our wheels of the purple punishment segment that we'll be doing here in the regular season uh we have a few good ideas probably at least half of the wheels filled with decent ideas but if you have any ideas listeners or Watchers let us know something that we could do right away nothing crazy like tattoo your face or something like that but something something along the lines of eah habanero or shave your head or something I don't know something we could do that isn't detrimental to our health or safety take it easy on us and we have full authority to say no oh yeah we are the decision makers but let us know there's got to be something you can think of that we haven't um but I'm really excited about that segment I think it'll be a lot of fun like the the goal is to have fun with it and maybe laugh at each other but yeah I'm excited for that one add some entertainment value for sure yeah um how could they reach out to us yeah hit us up pretty much anywhere uh we've got email the skop gmail.com yep we're on pretty much all the socials although we we pretty much stick to some of the basic ones uh we're on Twitter quite a bit Instagram Facebook uh we post a lot of stuff there as of recently um yeah somebody I was talking to not terribly long ago found out that I'm on a podcast and they were like oh how do you how where can I how can I find you and I was like honestly just Googled the skull hop and they did it's like oh i' i' see everything I see all your socials and your website and everything so yeah just just Google the skull hop um yeah yeah we're out there we're there to be found so yeah we and we'll interact with you gu I guess the next part of that little sentiment um so you do a great job managing our socials if you leave us a comment if you tweet at us if you mention us in a comment on Facebook Instagram uh even on Tik Tok we're out there too um post some stuff over there yeah reach out to us say hello um give us your thoughts or opinions on anything that we've talked about um good bad in between we can we can handle it little experiment too let us know where you're listening cuz I I never know where people if you're listening to us or watching us where where are you listening cuz we do kind of post everything everywhere like even Facebook we segment stuff out like let us know give us a comment or something say hey I'm listening or watching on blah blah blah so that'll be interesting to see where as in what platform yeah exactly yeah yeah where not like oh I'm in the Caribbean no like where your exact location no please don't do that don't don't please don't give anyone your location on the internet give us your coordinates hav stop but no like whatat form you're on U Spotify YouTube Facebook anything so yeah Twitter SLX yeah that'll be interesting to see that would be that would be fun and we'll be going live for a few games of the Vikings season this year we talked about it we looked at three four five games we'll be going live for us so that's exciting um yeah trying to think of everything to hit before we give our final thoughts on our we just need football to start man yeah I'm so excited I I'm ready even though this season kind of has like a I don't know it has a little bit of a fog over it right now but hey they could turn it around they could make this something special yeah you never know I mean nobody would have thought case Keenan would have taken the Vikings as far as he did um I'm not saying the Vikings should kind sign case Kingdom right now but but you never know the NFL is such a a league of parody so that's why it's exciting I wouldn't be mad if Case Keenum came back I mean I don't know just in a backup roll or something I think he's on IR right now I think the Texans put him on injured reserve oh interesting Evan what are your thoughts on this beer I really like it I would get this again um in fact I would get this a lot of times um gazelle you make a good beer your Amber logger is great I like the can art it's very 7s esque um and I just like Amber beers just like uh our wives like pumpkin spice lattes I I Gra gravitate towards a beer like this and I like it cuz it's just the contrast to a pumpkin spice latte is this doesn't try to do too much it's not yeah over the top it's not this like crazy special thing that you can only get at one particular point in the year now I like Amber beers all the time but as we kind of get into The Fall season Like This Is My Jam yeah this is it right here Evan this is a safe space you can be honest we all know you love pumpkin spice lattes I've probably had like one or two in my life but I think you know me well enough to know that if I'm going to go to a coffee shop I'm going to get plain black coffee that's true and I I know you well enough to know that you're probably going to do the same yeah if they don't have plain black coffee I'm not even going to get water there like I'm just going to leave but I agree with you this is a Beer's beer it's a good Amber Beer um maybe it's the can art influencing me but it does kind of make me feel like the' 70s you know like we need to have some shag carpet um you know Rudy on the TV or something but it's it's a good beer I like it a lot gazelle I'm I don't know why I'm always surprised at how good the beers are because they're always good but gazelle you make a good product um I'm glad to have one of your beers every time we are and I'm really glad that we were able to go there during the Brew hop yeah yeah I don't think there's anything else I can say about this beer try it definitely give it a try if you haven't before I think we got to skull it up and we got to get out of here great beer best episode yet go [Music] gool hey Vikings fans Evan here from the skull hop and we just wanted to say thank you again so much for listening to the skull hop and we also wanted to take one more opportunity to let you know that this episode of the skull hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures if you're considering taking an all-inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica reach out to our friends at bigtop ventures at bigtop ventures llc@gmail.com once again that's bigtop Ventures llc@gmail.com you can get the lowest rate possible on several all-inclusive Resorts throughout the region Big Top Ventures step right up to your next big adventure and thanks again for listening to the skull hop skull [Music]