2014 Minnesota Vikings: Vikings To Host Duron Carter Today and Tomorrow, Frontrunners to Sign
Arif Hasan
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Per Matt Miller of the Bleacher Report (who has been on-point on this Duron Carter story all year), Duron Carter—son of Vikings legend Cris Carter—will be visiting four teams, the Vikings among them. He has already visited the Colts and the Chiefs, and the Vikings are the next on the list.
Duron Carter update: Will not have Pro Day. Private meetings with teams starting next week. Four teams already setting up meetings.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) December 23, 2014
Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Minnesota and Indianapolis will be first teams Duron Carter meets with, per a source.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) December 23, 2014
Duron Carter is spending today with the #Vikings and working out for them tomorrow morning. Workouts with #49ers and #Browns next week.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) January 8, 2015
Carter will be visiting the team today and having dinner with receivers coach George Stewart and working out tomorrow in the facility. In May, he identified Coach Stewart as a primary reason he was interested in the Vikings and knows of his work around the NFL, including with Terrell Owens and Roddy White. According to Vikings Update, the Vikings are a frontrunner to sign Duron Carter, and may close in on a deal as soon as Friday.
Duron, the son of former Vikings receiver Cris Carter, is scheduled have dinner with receivers coach George Stewart and a member of the team’s front office Thursday and work out for the team on Friday morning. According to a source, the Vikings “have a very competitive offer on the table” and “if his workout goes well, he’ll agree to a contract.”
Duron Carter has identified Minnesota as one of his favorites for some time (for relatively obvious reasons—his father played for the franchise and the Vikings did his father a favor by providing him a tryout), though Matt Miller has heard Indianapolis was a favorite earlier in the process. I’m not sure why; the Colts have quite the accomplished receiver corps with T.Y. Hilton and Reggie Wayne, and they’ve been producing more this year than the Vikings’ corps has. Beyond that, it seems like the bottom of the receiver roster is a little bit more accomplished than the bottom of the Vikings’ roster (Donte Moncrief and Hakeem Nicks against Jarius Wright and Adam Thielen) so it would be tougher to crack.
If Carter would rather play with Andrew Luck over Teddy Bridgewater or Pep Hamilton over Norv Turner, that might also explain why the Colts were his top choice at one point. It may even be something that would be difficult to predict; he could have been impressed with their handling of Da’Rick Rogers (a receiver on their roster last year who was very talented but like Carter had off-field concerns) or he knows someone on the Colts staff that he trusts.
Carter has had a checkered college history and openly expressed a distaste for school. He started out at Cris Carter’s alma mater, Ohio State, and saw the field enough for 13 receptions before transferring to Coffeyville Community College, likely related to the same reason he was barred from the 2009 Rose Bowl—academic problems. He moved on to Alabama, but never played in a game because of the same eligibility concerns and moved on to Florida Atlantic. At FAU, same story: he didn’t play because of academic issues.
I’ll get a scouting report on Duron Carter up as soon as I can, but for now know that he’s likely quite a bit raw, and his hands aren’t as good as you’d hope given his background—which isn’t to say they’re bad, so much as inconsistent. He’s not a traditional burner, but he might be the kind of player who doesn’t have to have blazing speed to get open deep, having led the CFL in yards per catch. In 2012, with the Alouettes, he worked with recently fired Chicago coach Marc Trestman to lead the CFL in yards per game (ranked 11th in total receiving yards, but he only played 11 of 19 games).