Monthly archive: April, 2012

Notre Dame And The Vikings

April 9, 2012, by 5 comments

While perusing the internet, I came across this article written by Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press.  In it, Walters offers up very little reason outside of the obvious needs of this roster to surmise that there is “little doubt” the Vikings front office will “pounce” on Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith if he is available when they are on the clock in the second round.

One thing Walters wrote did jump out to me, however, of something that might actually have some meat behind it.  He noted that Rick Spielman seems to have a thing for Notre Dame players.  Considering that within less than a year he drafted tight end Kyle Rudolph, gave a hefty contract to center John Sullivan, and signed tight end John Carlson it seems that Walters might be on to something.

In fact, a quick scan of the Vikings roster indeed showed that the only other college to occupy three roster spots on this team is Iowa.  Then, Brett passed along the news that Notre Dame receiver Michael Floyd seems to have caught the eye of the Vikings, and I decided we should take a look at what all Notre Dame is offering up this year and examine their prospects a little closer.  Soon, I will take a look at Iowa, too.

Here are the major prospects that could be selected in a couple of weeks and some information on each:

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Michael Floyd To Meet With Vikings

April 8, 2012, by 2 comments

According to NFL.com, Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd is scheduled to meet with the Vikings in the upcoming week. Floyd is just one of the many prospects that the Vikings are sure to host in the upcoming days to the NFL draft.

Michael Floyd is considered by many to be the second best wide receiver in this draft class, only preceded by Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon.

The Vikings, who have the third pick in the draft, are highly unlikely to draft Floyd unless they trade down later into the first round or trade back up into the first round if they really like him.

Interestingly enough, the visit to the Vikings serves somewhat as a homecoming for Floyd who attended, and played football floor, Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Free Agency Did Little To Increase Super Bowl Odds, Vegas Says

April 8, 2012, by 1 comment

I’m not a betting man, but if I was I would probably put some money on the Minnesota Vikings every single year just out of principle.

That illustrates the exact reason I am not, and should not be, a betting man.

Still, it is interesting to note that the Vikings were not a good bet, according to Vegas, prior to free agency.  Vegas gave the Vikings 75/1 odds to win the Super Bowl prior to free agency beginning in March.

Now, it appears that the house doesn’t view Rick Spielman’s approach to free agency as a good thing, at least in the short term.  They now have 100/1 odds of winning the Super Bowl, according to the National Football Post.

The Green Bay Packers are currently the odds makers’ favorite team, giving them 13/2 odds of winning a ring for the second time in three years.

Five Free Agents Left That Could Help

April 8, 2012, by 6 comments

Free agency has now reached a near standstill with very few notable names left on the market.

The Vikings have been slowly accumulating low-risk “bargains” out of the discount bin and it wouldn’t be overly surprising to see them continue that approach between now and the Draft.  The Vikings likely want to keep their cap situation healthy so that they can possibly be active when players are cut following the Draft and training camp.

Still, there are a handful of guys left that I think can improve this roster, and here are my top five:

5.  Marcus Thomas, DT

Thomas is only 26 and is currently mulling over three offers.  He isn’t someone the Vikings should overpay for or anything, but he is younger than others currently available (Albert Haynesworth and Aubrayo Franklin, for example) and is a very solid run stopper.  With Letroy Guion and Fred Evans returning, a guy like Thomas would create quite the interesting training camp competition.

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Cook Visits With Virginia Students

April 7, 2012, by 3 comments

Chris Cook appears to be trying to turn his image around following a season that saw his name in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Cook recently visited Heritage Elementary School in Lynchburg, Virginia where he spoke to the students about the relationship between educations and their futures ran drills and shuttles, and played basketball and volleyball.

“I just wanted the students to know that school is the most important thing, especially today as far as them achieving their dreams and being what they want to be,” he said.

Cook missed his entire 2008 season at Virginia after being declared academically ineligible.

Inside Our War Room – Round One

April 6, 2012, by 16 comments

Over the past couple days, I have had the honor of representing Vikings Territory and the Minnesota Vikings in #MockThree. For those that don’t know, #MockThree is the best community mock draft online right now. It is all ran using Twitter and a great website created by Brandon Nall (@EmPuLSe). In this particular iteration of the draft (there have been two prior), each franchise has a “war room” with one General Manager and two Assistant Managers. From there, the mock draft acts almost identically to the real NFL draft. Each team has a certain amount of time on-the-clock to communicate within their war room and choose who they will select in the draft. Teams can communicate with each other throughout the draft (primarily through Twitter) to trade picks. The whole thing is incredibly creative and inventive and the amount of time the people responsible for #MockThree have put into the ‘game’ should be applauded.

I have to be completely honest – I was a little intimidated at first to be a part of this thing. The people involved are incredibly knowledgeable draftniks. Seriously, it’s what these guys do. And I’ll be upfront with you, I am not a draftnik. I’m not incredibly knowledgeable of all the college prospects (primarily the later round ones), I haven’t watched tons of tape and I’m not an expert scout. I do understand the Vikings, though. I know what they’ve done in past drafts, I know the teams’ needs and I have a good understanding of what the team could realistically do in this year’s draft. I’m also willing to work my butt off to do the research and make sure we make the right selections.

Currently, the second round of #MockThree is coming to an end. So, I thought it would be a good idea to recap for you all what we did in the first round, provide some analysis (via Adam Warwas) of what some other teams did and get your feedback on maybe where our war room should go from here.

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Trading Down Still A Possibility

April 6, 2012, by 11 comments

The public has narrowed down the Vikings options for the third overall selection in the upcoming Draft to essentially two:  Draft Matt Kalil or trade down.

Rick Spielman says he will be open to trading down, according to Pro Football Weekly, even when the team is actually on the clock.

“There are times we have been in (the war room) and we’ve done deals on the clock,” Spielman said.  “It’s an unknown, but you’re prepared for both ways. We’ll be ready and we’ll have a good idea of what we think the value of that third pick is.”

“If we want to get out of that pick, we’ll (determine) what it will take to get out of that pick,” he continued. “Plus you have to be careful of how far you would want to go back (down in the draft). You have to know what you’re looking at, depending on how far you go back. Are you getting yourself out of the (range of) the supposedly blue-chip type of players?”

“I think once we get through our draft meetings and get our board finalized and get the coaches involved, we’ll have a pretty good idea of what we want to do,” he said.

Trade partners could consist of either the Cleveland Browns or Miami Dolphins if either become smitten with quarterback prospect Ryan Tannehill.  However, other teams may be willing to move up and grab a blue chip player such as Matt Kalil or Morris Claiborne.

As much as I would like to see the Vikings turn the three pick into a gold mine of other picks, as we draw closer I am becoming increasingly convinced that they will simply make Kalil their selection and stay put.