Minnesota Vikings Podcast: Remembering Jerry Burns, Rookie Minicamp Takeaways + Kelly Kleine to Broncos | Episode 96
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The rookies got a week, you know, a week to prepare by themselves. But this is when we will see which rookie is ready to step up to the table. The fact that all of these legends and all these lions that were a part of this organization have lived as long as they have. And we've actually been graced to be able to talk to them. We should be very, very thankful and feel very fortunate that we got to meet them and be a part of their lives.

Yo, what's going on Vikings fans? Welcome to episode number 96 of the Minnesota Vikings podcast. Chris Corso here. I am super excited for this episode. The season is beginning to show its shape and its form. We are looking back and moving forward. That is the name of episode 96 of the Minnesota Vikings podcast. With that, I bring in Vikings.com's Gabe Henderson.

as well as the man behind the show, Jay Nelson. And Vikings rookie minicamp just took place this past weekend at the TCO Performance Center. We heard from some of your favorite Vikings rookies. We saw a quarterback out on the field, a Vikings draft pick quarterback out on the field in Kellen Mond. And we heard from the head coach, Mike Zimmer, who laid out all of his evaluations of

of the top Vikings draft picks and tryouts at Rookie Minicamp. And the man who was there at Rookie Minicamp is Gabe Henderson. So I'm starting off this show with getting your main takeaway from at least the first day or two of Vikings Rookie Minicamp at the TCO Performance Center this week.

Yeah, I think my biggest one is what I tweeted out like immediately following day one of practice. I said Janarius Robinson can legit scratch his knees standing up. And he's so long. He's so big. He can run. He was able to move like some of the veterans out there. And I was just so excited to see him just just work. Obviously, he's he's the biggest guy on the field alongside Christian Derisaw. But actually seeing those guys, you know.

compete in a walkthrough. I mean, that's at this point, I will take it compared to last year, not having rookie mini camp at all. I would take anything I can get to see those rookies out in the field. So being able to see those guys just, just compete and learn, um, and put faces with names and jerseys and body types. There, there were so many takeaways, but if I had to say one thing, I would say Janarius Robinson and two, I guess Patrick Jones is second. Um,

I was talking to Martin Nance earlier, and he was saying the Pitt guys, the guys that go to University of Pitt, I guess their defensive coordinator was playing, was the coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Martin was playing. And he said every time after every single drill, that coach would have every single defensive player run to wherever the ball was at the end of the play. And he wanted 11 guys to be where the ball was.

And you can pretty much see that in Patrick Jones and Jalen Twyman, both Pitt guys. Their motor was unmatched. Like they did not get tired the entire practice. And you can tell that, you know, that practice at Pitt kind of paid off here. And that energy was felt throughout the entire practice. So energy was at an all-time high for a walkthrough. There were so many guys running around. It was just good. The energy was just good to see people, coaches, everyone just out there enjoying what they do best.

You're going defense, and I like that you go with the pass rushers and the guy in the middle of the defensive line and the two Pittsburgh draft picks. But I'm going to go with offense. I'm going to go with a Vikings quarterback that was drafted in Kellen Mond early on in this draft. And you can see the highlights on Vikings.com of what number 11 was doing out there in his red jersey for the Vikings. It was pretty exciting to see it.

a high draft pick at the quarterback position at a Vikings rookie minicamp. We have not seen that since Teddy Bridgewater a very, very long time. And what Kellen Mond can do out on the field is just a little bit different than a lot of the Vikings quarterbacks are.

We'll be right back.

when he was scouting some of these draft picks and potential guys coming out in this year's draft. So a really interesting story from Vikings team reporter Eric Smith. I wanted to make sure to hit on that before we get into today's show.

With that, we have a jam-packed show that producer Jay Nelson has put together for us. A lot of news that has happened, whether it was the seven or so Vikings draft picks that have been signed, officially signed to the roster throughout the week of rookie minicamp. It was safety Cameron Bynum, tackle Christian Darasaw, wide receiver Amir Smith-Marset, tight end Zach Davidson,

defensive tackle Jalen Twyman, running back Kanae Wangu, and defensive end Janarius Robinson. As of our recording here, those were the seven Vikings draft picks that have been signed to their contracts. Also some really sad news in the Vikings family, and you can go and check out this video as well on Vikings.com. Jerry Burns, one of the all-time great contenders,

coaches in the Vikings organization has passed away at the age of 94. He's known for a lot of things and we're going to go over and have a little conversation here about what he's brought to the organization. I think Jay can do that justice as well as anybody in his 15 plus years or so with the Vikings organization. But before we do that, I just want to share a story about Jerry Burns and

I came to the Vikings in 2015 as a recent college graduate from the East Coast, and I was given an office pretty much in the –

kitchen area of Winter Park, and it was a closet to say the least. It was the last remaining office in the building at the old Vikings facility, and there were two people who I remember that came up and introduced themselves to me, and it didn't matter if I was working in the back of the kitchen or if I was the website guy at the time. Jerry Burns and Freddy Zambrilletti, two of the original Vikings guys

had come, knocked on the door, introduced themselves, told me their background, told me who they were, even though they were way bigger people and way bigger legends in this organization than a college graduate who was doing some stuff for the website. So I just wanted to share that story of Jerry Burns coming in and introducing himself to the website guy in the kitchen closet

that was my office in winter park. So that's my remembrance of Jerry Burns, Jay. I want to get your background and you have some notes here and share the legacy that, that he leaves behind for this Vikings organization. Jerry Burns was a part of this organization, my entire life, essentially as a kid growing up, he was offensive coordinator just when I was younger. But then when I really started paying attention to,

to the Vikings, to the Minnesota Vikings, who they really were, was during his years when he was the head coach of the team. And he was always kind of seen as kind of the wiry, take no crap head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. This was post the Bud Grant era, which is where my parents were really Viking fans at that point. For me, Jerry Burns was the first real head coach that I really paid attention to. And one of the things that you got out of Jerry Burns' career

after the fact when I started working for the team and just seeing how the legends reacted to him when they were around him showed you what he meant to this organization referencing that video that you were talking about Corso you know you saw that the Scott Studwell and those guys give a game ball to Jerry Burns after the game they all just had this this reverence for him because they knew that he won had a pedigree of being a winning coach from the very beginning of him playing playing football and then becoming a coach he won everywhere that he went and

and being an innovator as well. And so the thing for me that I love the most about Jerry Burns was I was at an event, basically one of the events where that was the ring of honor dinner behind the scenes and all the former ring of honor recipients had come and all these different people were there. And one of the things I remember the most was seeing Jerry Burns and Bill boom, boom Brown walking down the hall together with their wives and

And they were laughing and they were smiling and they were having a good time. And then sitting at the dinner, they sat at the same table together and everybody was coming up to them, talking to them, you know, and every time somebody came up to him, giant smile on his face and they were BS and back and forth. The other great memory I have about Jerry Burns is this. We were in Canton, Ohio during one of the inductions for our players. And we had basically taken a hotel room and turned it into a studio and

And what we had set up this room and we were getting all this info. Jerry Burns was one of the guys who was at Canton and they are wanting to get Jerry's take on Chris Dolman. So Jerry sitting in the chair, I'm outside as everybody else is helping shoot and I'm helping coordinate everything. And who comes rolling up the hallway, but random McDaniel and John Randall. And those two guys see each other and they start giving each other a hard time BS and back and forth. And they're like, come on, man, I got to get going. They're like, who's in there? And I said, Burnsy.

And both their faces lit up with a giant smile. And they're like, oh man, I got to get in there. And what happened was, is we were just kind of like waiting, waiting, waiting. I finally get the text that it's over. And I'm like, all right, he's done in there. And those two burst the door open and they go in there as loud as they can. They're like, who the heck is taking up all my time? I got a schedule to keep going off on this guy. And you see Jerry at first kind of like, what the heck? And then he realizes who it is.

And just giant smile on their face and they're giving him a hard time. And then my favorite thing was one of them broke out their phone and go, Hey, Jerry, I got a video to show you. And they pulled up the infamous video of his press conference that everybody now knows is the viral video of Jerry Burns getting mad and swearing at his press conference. And he just looks at it. He goes, Oh man, you had to bring that up, didn't you?

Those are my favorite memories of him because it was the players, how much they respected and loved him and how much he loved being around everyone in this organization. So it is a huge loss to lose a guy like this. And 94 years of age, he lived an absolutely full life and,

given his bio and what he did in football, not only in college and pros. And so it is a big loss, but it's been awesome to be able to be around him and just be able to see how everyone has reacted to him here, part of the Minnesota Vikings family. Yeah, I agree, Jay. I mean, it's unbelievable the career that he had with the Vikings. He had 24 years as a coach, 18 years as an offensive coordinator,

coordinator from 1968 to 1985. And then he was the head coach for six years as well. He made four Super Bowl appearances. He was actually a part of the Green Bay Packers and their first ever Super Bowl win, which is just an amazing thing there that he coached defensive backs under Vince Lombardi in Green Bay from 1965 to 1967. So he actually won the two rings for

in Super Bowls 1 and 2 with the Green Bay Packers before moving on to the Vikings and becoming pretty much one of the all-time offensive coordinators in the history of the game, pretty much revolutionizing the NFL offense, going from a running game to more of a passing game. Obviously, what we see today is a big-time...

shift from what the NFL and the league was in those early years from when they would run the ball pretty much every single play. So he has really had his imprint on the league as a whole from the very beginning, from the very first Super Bowl season

to a college graduate in the new facility in 2015 who gets to meet him for the first time. And I didn't even know who he was growing up where I grew up. I didn't know who Jerry Burns was. And I looked him up after that, and I saw his name, and I started to learn about who he was. And I would see him around the press box at some of the games, and he was always rooting on his Vikings no matter how old he got, no matter –

how well he was feeling on that day at his age. He was there and alongside Bud Grant. And it is crazy some of the legends that are in this organization. And he is certainly one of the all-time legends here.

in this organization. Gabe, do you have any thoughts on Jerry Burns and what he's brought? I don't know if you've ever had a chance to meet him, which is definitely a treat, but man, I'm sure you've heard about what he's done for this organization. You can tell how great a coach he is by the coaches he produces.

A guy who speaks really highly of a guy like Jerry Burns is Pete Carroll, the head coach for the Seattle Seahawks. He's under his coaching tree. We always talk about coaching trees, like the Kubiak coaching tree, the Schottenheimer coaching tree. Jerry Burns has a coaching tree also. And Jerry Burns fell under, like you said, the Bud Grant and Vince Lombardi and Les Stelkel coaching tree. So just seeing...

What he's been able to produce under him, that goes to show you the effect that he had not only for the Minnesota Vikings, but this entire, you know, National Football League. So I'm sure he was an amazing man compared to you guys' stories. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him. But, hey, rest in peace. I'm glad we were able to celebrate his life.

Absolutely. That's a really good way to put it. When you have a guy like Pete Carroll, one of the best head coaches in the NFL history, speaking so highly of a man like Jerry Burns. And I'll just throw one more out there. PR director, head of PR for the Vikings, one of the heads, Bob Hagan, who has had relationships with Sid Hartman, Bud Grant, all the people that have been around the Vikings organization for years upon years. Bob had nothing but great words.

for Bernsie and he was always his escort. Wherever Bernsie was around the Vikings organization, Bob Hagen was the one who got him where he needed to go in his later years of life. So shout out to Bob for how respectful he is with all of the legends in our organization and all the things he does in that area. But yeah, just a privilege to be able to meet him.

A privilege to be able to meet a guy like Freddy Zambruletti, who passed away a few years back, the Vikings' original athletic trainer. Those two guys were very close, and if you saw one of them, you would see the other.

Jay, you got a point to make before we move on here? Yeah, I just wanted to point out one last thing. Think about what you just said. You talked about Fred Zambriletti, who was here forever. He was literally here from the beginning of the organization up and through the 2000s. And then you had guys like Sid who lived to be basically 100 covering this team the way he did. On the same day,

that Burnsy passed, Jim Klobuchar passed, who also covered the team, the star Tribune. He was 93 years old, but grant is essentially 94 years old. Like all of these lions that are associated with this organization, uh,

whether it was from the media or from the team. And here's the thing you got to remember, the media was really tight with a lot of these teams as well. It was kind of like open door policy where they would walk in, go into coaches offices and kind of, you know, BS back and forth. The fact that all of these legends and all of these lions that, that were a part of this organization have lived as long as they have. And we've actually been graced to be able to talk to them and pull as much knowledge as we can. We should be very, very grateful.

and feel very fortunate that we got to meet them and be a part of their lives. Four Super Bowl appearances, an NFL championship, three NFC titles, 10 division titles, and the 2005 Vikings Ring of Honor inductee just has done so much for this organization. And the last note on here, which I love...

He recruited Paul Kraus, the NFL's all-time interceptions leader, to Iowa in college and also brought Paul Kraus to the Vikings and was his presenter into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So had a pretty big imprint on one of the Vikings' all-time defensive players being a part of this organization. So Bernsie leaves an all-time legacy behind.

with the Vikings organization, one that can definitely not be repeated. From that, we go to another topic here in the Vikings organization, a tough topic to talk about because this is a very close friend of mine that's leaving the Vikings organization, Kelly Kline.

is headed over to the Denver Broncos as the executive director of football operations and as special advisor to the general manager. We know the general manager for the Denver Broncos is former Vikings assistant general manager George Payton. Obviously, he was thrilled to give Kelly this big promotion and be reunited with her in Denver. I say sore subject because...

She's leaving our organization, the Minnesota Vikings, and she's been a great friend to a lot of us here in this organization. But obviously, we are absolutely thrilled and so happy for Kelly. She has become what's known to be the highest-ranking female in NFL history in the personnel department, Gabe. I think that's a pretty big deal for Kelly.

Yeah, and I'm glad that she earned that right? Like, I'm glad this isn't a hire that you know, that's just affirmative action. Like Kelly was the best person for this job. And she earned this job because she was qualified for it. And Kelly Cline is just another example of females doing great work in a male dominated industry. So hats off to her never really had a chance to meet her. But

But I've heard really good things about her. I mean, just from starting from the bottom. I know I'm quoting Drake right now, but just starting from the bottom and actually working her way up. I think I was reading something on Twitter the other day where I heard heard something basically Kelly Cline when she first got to the Vikings. She went to coach Andre Patterson and basically said, hey, can you teach me defensive line schemes?

And that pretty much set herself up to where she is now. I mean, having the humility to ask for help, that pretty much speaks to her character just outside looking in. I know you guys have more in-depth stories, but I'm happy for her, man. This is a great opportunity. Best of luck to her.

um other than when they're playing us and i guess that's preseason week one well jay and i were actually at a wedding table um with kelly klein last weekend uh luke burson a big time member of the vikings front office uh got married in all the way up in minnesota last weekend and and we we got to really have a great time with kelly we had no idea that she was leaving the organization we actually had a great great time at this wedding but um

I've had many great times with Kelly over the years, and she welcomed me. Another person in this organization, she was one of the younger people that welcomed me with open arms and was literally one of the most fun people to talk to, to just talk about life with anything that was going on. Even if it wasn't about football, she is just one of the best people, and she is the best person for this job with the Denver Broncos because she

Ten seasons here with the Vikings. She started as a PR intern in Jeff Anderson's group with the PR department and literally took that internship as a PR intern and turned it into this career in the personnel department. It's unbelievable. Rick Spielman, the Vikings general manager, has nothing but the highest regard for what she has brought to this organization from a scouting standpoint, from a football admin standpoint.

to planning meetings, to interviewing players at the combine. She's been all over the Vikings front office for a decade. And obviously she has earned this position. She went from a PR intern to a scouting assistant, to a scouting coordinator, to a manager, to a coach,

Which I think her last title was manager of player personnel slash college scout for the last two seasons. And that has led her to this position with the Denver Broncos. I am just absolutely thrilled for her, for her family, and what she's going to bring to that Denver Broncos organization.

Obviously, Jay, it's a big time loss for our Vikings and the front office crew that we have here. Yeah. You know, one of the things you brought up Jeff Anderson's name here. And I think one of the better stories that I saw on Twitter when Jeff was kind of kind of recanting how Kelly even came to be a part of the organization. And Jeff was basically saying she had reached out to him for an interview for a school project.

And in doing so, they had kind of, they were able to talk and that was when she got her opportunity as a PR intern was essentially like her roommate drove her over to do this interview with Jeff Anderson, started asking the right questions and they hit it off. And then when they needed a PR intern, they had reached out to her and said, Hey, if you're interested, given all the other interaction they had had with her, you know, Hey, we're, we're willing to do this. And like you guys said,

She started from the bottom and she earned it. She absolutely earned it, you know, all along the way here. And that's the reason, like for me, I love seeing these kinds of stories where it's literally starting from the very bottom and, and basically doing every job at every level to make it fit.

Very similar to like Stefanski did where he started off as the assistant for the coach and now he's basically head coaching for the Cleveland Browns. So another situation where somebody who really put in the time, put in the effort, made all the strides that she had to learn on the job and at the same point produce success.

Um, and the fact that, you know, she's reuniting with George there in Denver and in a great city, I think it's going to be a great stepping point for her. And another thing to look forward to is just to see how this whole ride goes, because there is a very legit shot that with everything she's done and the opportunity she's got now, there's a chance you could see Kelly Klein as the first general female general manager in the NFL in a couple of years. And it's just awesome to see it happen. So couldn't happen to a better person.

And kudos to her for everything she's done and having it pay off in this kind of role. Absolutely. One of the best people in the Vikings organization throughout the last decade. And she has been given a bigger and better opportunity. So congratulations to her and definitely look forward to seeing what she does there in her next chapter and adventure with the Denver Broncos. With that, we're going to move forward and following our rookie minicamp,

As I said earlier, we had those seven players who have officially inked their contracts with the Vikings. We went through the list before. So there are a few players that are still unsigned, which I want to cover here. Unsigned yet is third round pick quarterback Kellen Mond, third round pick

Chaz Surratt, linebacker out of North Carolina. Third round pick, Wyatt Davis, guard out of Ohio State. And third round pick, Patrick Jones, the second defensive end out of Pittsburgh. And there was also a trade that went on this past week in the Vikings organization. Former first round pick, Mike Hughes, was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs.

along with a seventh-round pick, and the Vikings were able to receive a sixth-round pick in return. I know there were some questions with his health and what he was going through injury-wise, so we don't even know if he would have made the roster following training camp and what he's able to do out there on the field. So Rick Spielman gets a sixth-round pick in return for Mike Hughes today.

in that deal. Obviously, all those guys that are unsigned, the four unsigned third-round draft picks, I don't expect any issues there. I watched a lot of their press conferences this week. They are very, very excited to be Minnesota Vikings. Wyatt Davis was one that really stood out. I really enjoyed his press conference and what he had to say about the facility, about his new teammates, and about working with Christian Darasaw on the offensive line.

I would go check that out on Vikings.com. Really interesting stuff there from the Ohio State guard and third-round pick. I'm just excited. The Vikings players are back in the building.

They were getting their vaccines at the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center this past week. You can see some videos and photos on Vikings.com of that event. I know Coach Zimmer is excited. He said in his press conference to not have to wear a mask, to be able to see coaches face-to-face, have conversations, understand what they're saying, and not have to ask them to repeat themselves.

because of wearing those masks is a big deal for the old school head coach, Mike Zimmer. So Jay, I'm throwing it to you. What are your final thoughts in this episode of the MVP before we look forward to the next phase of the off season program? One thing to keep in mind is the,

this team is not done signing players. This team is still trying to help this roster get better, whether it's unsigned or undrafted college free agents, or even some other guys that are out on the street currently, or even from other teams that are, you know, teams are having to try to figure out what are they going to do with the veterans versus the rookies and figure out their salary cap situations and everything. You know, we've got three free agents that have signed fairly recently with Evan Kazarzyk,

Uh, the offensive tackle out of Buffalo, six, six, three 11. You had free agents, Perry Nickerson, uh, the DB out of Tulane. He's basically in his fourth year now. And he's had a, in three seasons, he's been at the Seahawks jets, Jags and Packers. And then you had a tight end Shane Zylstra who broke Thielen's records at Minnesota state Mankato. Uh,

Basically, you're seeing this team still continue to evolve. And even though the rookie minicamp and everything had happened, they're still bringing in some of these guys that they think can make things better. So given what you were just talking about, even with Mike Hughes getting traded, I

The fact is like the, the DB position, I think we're up to what four, maybe five players at this point. I'm sure that they're going to want to potentially keep adding talent at that position. So just pay attention to social media and pay attention to vikings.com as this team keeps bringing in outside players to come in and potentially help this team get better and finalize down to their 53 man roster here at the end of the summer. Gabe. Yeah. I'm just looking forward to seeing how these rookies mesh with the veterans. Um,

The rookies got a week to prepare by themselves, but this is when we will see which rookie is ready to step up to the table. Of course, the NFL moves fast, and a lot of these guys understand that. And I'm excited to see whoever guy. I'm a big fan of Cameron Bynum. I talked to him earlier, and I think, of course, you know, Jay, I've done a lot of interviews in my life, but I think this is top five most successful

interviews I've ever done in my life. So I'm interested to see how he's going to pan out. He has a golden opportunity, no pun intended, going to Cal playing for the Golden Bears, but he has a golden opportunity right in front of him to get some valuable playing time this year and to learn how to be a valuable safety in this league for a while to come. So I'm excited. Football is back like we've been talking about, and that's exciting.

That's the main thing. The fact that we're able to get outside and actually see these guys put on helmets and play and laugh and do what they have to do. And it makes our job easy. We're able to be better at our jobs when they're better at theirs. So, yeah.

It's a partnership, and I'm looking forward to the 2021 partnership with the Vikings. All right. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it again. Thank you for joining us, fans, for episode number 96 of the Minnesota Vikings podcast. A really exciting time of year as the weather is getting nice in the Twin Cities. It's my favorite time of year. There's hope for the summer. There's hope for COVID.

hopefully being over fully so we're able to all get outside, be on the lake, and enjoy our Vikings offseason program and Vikings offseason football as we get set for this upcoming season in the fall. There's a lot that you have to go and check out on Vikings.com before you go.

Vikings.com's team reporter, Eric Smith, as I said earlier in the show, has a really big-time article on Vikings.com titled MRI Pending, and it gives you the inside look of all the medical information that the Vikings staff had to gather leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft. Really, really good insight from Eric Sugarman, from the Vikings athletic training crew, and of course, general manager Rick Spielman. They give you the inside look.

of how that went down dealing with all the COVID ramifications throughout the 2021 NFL Draft. So definitely go check that out. Also, the Vikings Vantage, our show on the Vikings Podcast Network, will feature ESPN's Courtney Cronin this week

She has done an absolutely outstanding job covering the Vikings throughout the past few years. She had the scoop that the Vikings were trying to trade up for Justin Fields in the first round of this year's 2021 NFL Draft. So I'm sure we will hear about that when we speak to her on the Vikings Vantage. You can catch that on all the Vikings platforms online.

on Friday morning, the Vikings podcast platform, Spotify, as well as iTunes, et cetera. Go check that out on Friday morning after listening to this very podcast. And also, congratulations to Vikings.com's Lindsay Young. She did a really great job on her Getting Open series, which addresses the mental health issues

issues that are pretty much affecting every single person in this country throughout the COVID pandemic and of course throughout the NFL. Vikings players opened up with Lindsey and told their stories about battling through all those issues and Gabe did a really good job of interviewing Lindsey on this very platform about what this series has meant to her and

and her personal battles with some mental health issues as well. She was very open. She gave her story, which is good for everybody. Really great job on that series, Lindsay, and a great job by all the Vikings Entertainment Network staff that helped her put that together because everyone loved

had a hand in telling those stories from the graphics team to the editorial team to the video team, audio team. This series was on every single platform on the Vikings Entertainment Network, so really, really great work on that series getting open. Go check out all 12 parts of the series on the Vikings Entertainment Network platforms.

That'll do it for this episode of the Minnesota Vikings podcast. For Jay Nelson, Gabe Henderson, and the rest of the Vikings Entertainment Network, this is Chris Corso, and we will see you next week.