Purple Rumor Mill: Bo Nix, Bynum as a Starter, Prominent Role for Rookie
Dustin Baker
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VikingsTerritory’s Purple Rumor Mill is a two-day chronicle each week. All the week’s rumors are lassoed and plopped in two spots — articles on Saturday and Sunday — for review. Today is the July 2nd edition.
Purple Rumor Mill: Bo Nix, Bynum as a Starter, Prominent Role for Rookie
Remember — rumors are rumors. What you read on weekends in these pieces is what the world is talking about pertaining to the Vikings, not necessarily items that will come to fruition.
Here’s the second batch of the week. Yesterday’s can be read here.
Rumor: The Vikings should have quarterback Bo Nix on their 2024 radar.
Kirk Cousins enters the final year of his contract in 2022, a first-of-its-kind arrangement for him in Minnesota. Indeed, this could be Cousins’ last year with the Vikings.
And that would likely indicate a rookie quarterback is around the bend. According to Pro Football Focus, Minnesota should keep an eye on Oregon’s Bo Nix. The football-grading outfit authored an article this week detailing a rookie each team should monitor, and for the Vikings, it was Nix.
PFF’s Dalton Wasserman wrote, “The Vikings most likely won’t be bad enough to enter the Caleb Williams sweepstakes, so someone like Oregon’s Bo Nix could be an option later in the first round. Nix is a solid rhythm passer who gets rid of the ball quickly and does some of his best work on the move. He offers more mobility than Cousins to run Kevin O’Connell’s outside zone/boot system. Nix is considered a Heisman dark horse and could vault himself into the first round with another big year at Oregon.”
Nix is a very real option for the Vikings next April. Fans should remember the name.
Rumor: Camryn Bynum, not Lewis Cine, will probably end up starting at free safety.
Bynum played every defensive snap for the 2022 Vikings. Every. Single. Play.
There’s no guarantee that Lewis Cine will be nominated for Week 1 starting duty, so folks should get used to the idea of Bynum opposite Harrison Smith out of the gate in 2023. Cine may take time to acclimate inside Brian Flores’ defense.
VikingsWire even projected Bynum as the starting free safety this week. And that is not outrageous.
Rumor: DeWayne McBride will be one of the league’s most productive rookie RBs this season.
This was a CBS Sports special.
Chris Trapasso ranked rookie tailbacks by the thumbprint they’d put on the NFL this season, and McBride was predicted as third leaguewide behind Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs.
“I’m still standing behind McBride in this spot, and much of that confidence stems from my belief that he was far too talented on the field to be picked in the seventh round to begin with. McBride was a multi-year, ultra-efficient runner, and at 5-foot-10 and 210 pounds, he has ideal between-the-tackles size,” he explained.
McBride is arguably fourth on the depth chart right now behind Alexander Mattison, Ty Chandler, and Kene Nwangwu.
Trapasso concluded, “Maybe his lack of a workout during the pre-draft process catalyzed what to me was a fall to the last round of the draft. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry during his three-year stay at UAB and forced 175 missed tackles on his 484 attempts. With just Alexander Mattison and Ty Chandler ahead of him on the depth chart, McBride has the juice to make a sizable impact on Minnesota’s run game that’s backed by a bulldozing offensive line.”
We maintain it’s a longshot for McBride to have a huge rookie season, but stranger things have happened, especially if injuries arise.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Viking obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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