Opinion

Harvin’s Past Is Again Under Scrutiny

April 9, 2012, by 6 comments

I remember giving the selection of Percy Harvin in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft a “C” grade due mostly to the character concerns following him out of Florida.

After three seasons of breath-taking plays, Harvin’s character concerns have never reared their ugly in any big way, and he has actually grown into a sort of leadership role on the offense.

Now, however, stories about Urban Meyer’s mismanagement of the Florida program are now uncovering new details of Harvin’s checkered past.  According to the reports from Sporting News, Harvin “epitomized the climate” created by Meyer that entitled certain players and led to practices that placed stars like Harvin into a special category, allegedly allowing them to get away with things they should not have.

In 2008, Meyer told the press that Harvin and two other players missed four games due to injury.  In reality, it appears that Harvin missed those games as a result of a failed drug test and the University required the four game suspension but Meyer made sure to cover for his players.  Harvin also reportedly failed a drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine prior to the Vikings drafting him.

The report continues to recall a story where Harvin grew tired of doing stadium runs and decided to just stop.  When told to keep moving he exclaimed, “This (bad word) end now.”  The following day conditioning did not include stadium runs, and instead the players played basketball.

The most troubling story is the one that tells of Harvin assaulting wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales by throwing him to the ground and putting his hands around his neck.  Meyers never let the truth about that incident become public, saying only that “something did happen,” and Gonzales himself claims that the incident was blown out of proportion.

Harvin, in November of 2010, reportedly got into a verbal altercation with Brad Childress that nearly turned physical but stopped just short.

Harvin has not yet commented on the article by Sporting News and with his surgery scheduled for Tuesday, it is unlikely he will grant media access any time real soon.

At the end of this latest season, Harvin won the Korey Stringer Good Guy Award for his professionalism in dealing with the media.  Outside of the Childress incident and some mild pouting about the sudden release of teammate Randy Moss, Harvin seems to have his life under control and appears to be the exact type of player the Vikings were hoping to get when they selected him.

In fact, if it wasn’t for recent scandals following Urban Meyer around, Harvin’s character concerns would still be just a thing of the past.

Ranking The Vikings Draft Needs

April 9, 2012, by 4 comments

I am a big fan of drafting best player available, regardless of need, and building your team around solid, young players instead of reaching to fill a void.  After all, there is nothing wrong with having good depth at a position and/or getting better at something you are already good at.

Still, teams have needs and the Minnesota Vikings are quite obviously no exception. 

With that, I present you with my rankings of how the Vikings needs stack up going into this year’s Draft:

1.      Safety

There is perhaps no positional group on any team in the NFL that needs upgrading more than the Vikings need to upgrade their safeties.  Heck, at this point I would say the Vikings have a greater need at safety than the Dolphins do at quarterback.  The thought of Jamarca Sanford and Mistral Raymond being starters instead of depth players, especially in our division, should worry even the most enthusiastic optimists.

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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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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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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.

Venturing Into The Second Round

April 5, 2012, by 4 comments

Up until today, our Vikings Territory mock drafts have been limited to the first round.

Considering the Vikings are set to select near the top of each round, it only made sense to make things more interesting an include a second round.  You can view my mock draft by clicking here, using the tabs to move between the rounds.

As expected, the Vikings had a number of interesting options available to them with the 35th pick.  These options included DT Devon Still, WR Stephen Hill, CB Alfonzo Dennard, and MLB Dont’a Hightower.

I felt that Still was the best player available at this point but still went against my better judgment and pulled the trigger on wide receiver Alshon Jeffery instead.

Jeffery, once regarded as a top ten prospect, has endured criticism from talking heads for a weight and conditioning issue that seemed completely unfounded when he showed up to the Combine and his Pro Day in great shape.

The Vikings have a huge need at receiver, particularly one that can be the top downfield target for years to come, and I think Jeffery has the potential to fill that role.