Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here.

And look who is back on the show from the athletic New England Patriots reporter, Chad Graff,

formerly of the Minnesota Vikings beat.

And it's a return for you and half of the New England roster coming back to Minnesota.

I was just looking at the roster and I was like, Kairas Tonga, nice guy.

I wrote a story about Kairas Tonga one time.

I mean, there are deep cuts.

There are former stars.

It's going to be a heck of a time when the Patriots come for these

joint practices. I want to start with you, Chad, with this. Is it as big of a deal for Mike Vrable

as it is for Kevin O'Connell? Because O'Connell at every single press conference has talked about

how much he cares. And I mean, every single one he has brought up these joint practices.

I think O'Connell is downright giddy to see his team go up against the Patriots in the

practices that matter to him, honestly more than any of the preseason actions. It's the same way

for Vrable. Not quite. Frabel's kind of the old school. He's got a little Mike Zimmer to him of like just a nasty tough football guy.

The kind of guy who last week at joint practices when they had the Washington commanders in town

legitimately, and I know you may have seen headlines about this, those headlines were not

exaggerated.

He jumped into a skirmish involving offensive and defensive lineman and comes out with this big gash on his cheek that you'll still see in Minnesota because it was that bad of a, you know, gash that he comes away with from jumping in. So he's such a football guy that when you ask him, you know, are joint practices more important? What do you think about the preseason? And no, no, today. It's like these one-on-one drills are so important behind me. Like this is what matters.

And so I wish it were the same way. What do you think about the preseason? No, no, today. These one-on-one drills are so important behind me.

Like, this is what matters. And so I wish it were the same way as Kevin O'Connell because I'm as jacked up for these as Kevin O'Connell. Mike Vrable probably won't admit that even if he feels similarly. Well, I think Vrable is just jacked up for all football all the time. Now, we do have some precedent,

though, in terms of how seriously his squad will take it. When the Vikings practiced against

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