Trade Jared Allen? We Should Talk About That

April 14, 2012, by 16 comments

A number of weeks ago, Brett and I had a little side discussion about the possibility of the Vikings trading Jared Allen this offseason.  We were even thinking about doing a little back-and-forth feature at the time, as we knew it was inevitable that some other media outlet would bring up this possibility, but we never quite managed to get around to it.

Now that I am back from a long work week, however, I took some time to review all the comments from the last few days and one jumped out to me.

In the comment, a reader says that he heard on a local radio station that a rumor is making the rounds that the Vikings are possibly (could be, maybe, potentially, maybe) considering entertaining offers for their stud right end.

Earlier this offseason, Rick Spielman went out of his way to say that Adrian Peterson was the only player that was off the table in terms of an early departure, which makes sense considering the blockbuster deal they just signed him to.  He easily could have included Jared Allen in that statement, but didn’t.

So, it makes sense that the Vikings won’t trade Peterson, but would an Allen trade make sense?

First, let’s take a look at some possible reasons to consider it an option:

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#MockThree: Give Us Your Grades

April 13, 2012, by 19 comments

If you haven’t been following along, Vikings Territory has had the pleasure of participating in an online, community mock draft called #MockThree. Essentially, it is a real-time draft where real people represent their favorite teams. It was an absolute blast and we are actually already doing it again with #MockFour. (We are the General Managers this time.)

I’ve tried to give everyone here a look into our war room for #MockThree with a few posts discussing the who, what and why of our various selections throughout the draft. If you missed them, go read about the first round, the second and third round, the fourth round and then the final rounds. Come back when you’re done!

For all of you that followed along (Or those who don’t want to and, instead, just want to be a critic!) we would now like you to grade our efforts and tell us what you think of our haul overall. So, here’s what we walked away with:

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Kirkpatrick And Floyd To Visit Vikings

April 13, 2012, by 1 comment

According to Jeremy Fowler of the Pioneer Press, the Vikings will be bringing cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick as well as wide receiver Michael Floyd to Winter Park next week. We already reported that Floyd would be visiting a few days ago. Kirkpatrick’s visit is new news, though.

Realistically, the Vikings will not select either player come April 26th, barring some sort of trade to move further down. It’s good to see the Vikings doing their due diligence though and looking into some of this year’s best prospects at two positions of need.

Ironically, in #MockThree, a social media centric, online, community draft, our war room actually traded back up into the first round to select Dre Kirkpatrick.

 

Inside Our War Room – The Final Rounds

April 13, 2012, by 4 comments

The last few rounds of the #MockThree draft went much quicker than the first four. That’s partly due to the fact that each team has significantly less time on the clock but it’s also because it just feels like there is less weight on your decisions in those later rounds. Or at least it felt that way for me. There aren’t really any guarantees that deep in the draft. Well, I guess there are very few guarantees at any point in the draft, but more so it seems the further back you go. If you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, it’s probably because you missed the first few posts in this “Inside Our War Room” series. If that’s the case, you can catch up and see how we impacted who the Vikings selected in the community online #MockThree draft by reading about the first round, the second and third round and the fourth round.

Here’s a short recap of who the Vikings selected up to round five:

Round One

1.03 – LT Matt Kalil, USC
Trade – 2.03, 4.03 and 6.03 for Bengals 1.21
1.21 – CB Dre Kirkpatrick, Alabama

Rounds Two & Three

3.03 – S Markelle Martin, Oklahoma State

Round Four

4.33 – WR Nick Toon, Wisconsin
4.39 – ILB James-Michael Johnson, Nevada

Pretty good haul so far if you ask me.

If you remember from my post about the fourth round, their were different opinions in our war room regarding which receiver we should select with our first compensatory pick in the fourth round. I suggested we take receiver Nick Toon while our GM preferred taking a different receiver. Kyle, another member of our war room from the Daily Norseman, tipped the scale in the favor of Toon and that’s what we ended up doing. My point at the time was that the receiver Josh, our GM, wanted to take would probably be there at the beginning of the fifth round whereas Nick Toon was less likely to be around. Ladies and gentleman, something rare happened that day: I was correct! Luckily for us, we were able to grab the two guys we wanted and have our third guy fall to us in the third.

Wide receiver is a huge need for the Vikings. Luckily for them, this year’s draft class is deep with players who can immediately contribute and provide more weapons for Ponder to use in his semi-sophmore season. I outlined a few of these receivers (and did some ‘scouting’) who the Vikings could target in later rounds and it just so happens we ended up with two of those players. Nick Toon and…

With the third pick of the fifth round of the 2012 #MockThree NFL draft…

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Gerhart Still On Track

April 12, 2012, by 7 comments

Is this Adam posting?!?  Really?  Sorry for my absence as of late, everyone.  Those of you that have been reading my rambling jottings for a while now will likely remember a couple of years back when I had to miss the NFL Draft because the company I work for held their annual shareholder meetings (attendance not optional for employees) during Draft Week.

Luckily, since we have big plans for a weekend-long live chat, this year I will be around for the entire draft which is good news.  The bad news, however, is those meetings are this week so I have been swamped.  Brett has done a fantastic job, however, of keeping the site updated with his Draft analysis and I really, really appreciate it.

As always, I couldn’t go too long without posting, though, so I wanted to pass along a little bit of good news that is a couple of days old.

Running back Toby Gerhart injured his MCL at the end of last season and decided to forego surgery and proceed with rehabilitation.  Gerhart thinks he will be ready by the time OTA’s get started.

“I should be able to do everything once we get back,” Gerhart said.  “I’m still strengthening the quad, and the MCL has healed on its own. The key is just doing more running. I still get a little soreness when I run, but that goes away the next day. I’m on track.”

This is an important piece of news as Gerhart stands to carry a heavier-than-normal share of the work at the beginning of this season, as Adrian Peterson is still on the mend from his ever-serious knee injury of his own.

NFL 2012 Draft: Later-Round Receiver Scouting

April 12, 2012, by 9 comments

Over the past week or so, I’ve done an extensive amount of research into various draft prospects this year. Primarily, I wanted to familiarize myself as best as possible with all the array of options we would have in the #MockThree draft I’ve been participating in. I also just enjoy doing the research because it gets me more pumped for draft day. Hurry up, April 26th! (Speaking of the draft, don’t forget we’ll be having extensive coverage of the draft here at VT including a live chat.)

We all know what the Vikings first pick will be barring some blockbuster trade from Cleveland or Miami – offensive tackle Matt Kalil, USC. The uncertainty begins with what the Vikings will do with their second pick. It’s likely that they will go one of three ways: receiver, cornerback or safety; all of which are definite team needs. We’ve talked quite a bit around here about different receivers the Vikings could target in the first and second rounds. We’ve discussed Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd, Kendall Wright, Stephen Hill (yeah!) and Alshon Jeffery.

I wanted to share with everybody some of the research I did on the later round prospects. The people that will probably go in the third round and beyond. This year’s wide receiver class is very deep so the Vikings have ample opportunity to improve the weapons Christian Ponder has this season.

I’ll provide upside and downside for each receiver, some tape analysis and, to wrap it all up, who I would select if I was Rick Spielman. So, if you’re a draft nerd like I am and are groveling for every bit of draft news you can get, join me after the jump to read the rest of this mammoth post.

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Inside Our War Room – Round 4

April 11, 2012, by 15 comments

Alright, back to update you all again on our progress in the #MockThree online mock draft. I’ve touched on it a couple times already (so I won’t again here), but if you missed the first three rounds as well as the general background information on what the draft is all about, use the links below to catch up.

Round One

1.03 – LT Matt Kalil, USC
Trade – 2.03, 4.03 and 6.03 for Bengals 1.21
1.21 – CB Dre Kirkpatrick, Alabama

Rounds Two & Three

3.03 – S Markelle Martin, Oklahoma State

After making the Markelle Martin selection at the top of the third, we again had to wait almost two full rounds to make another pick (as a result of the Dre Kirkpatrick trade). And again, it was tough to watch so many players we were targeting fly off the board.

Before making the Martin selection at the beginning of the third, I was pushing for us to take a wide receiver. Let me rephrase that: I was pushing for us to reach on a wide receiver. I had done a ton of scouting on various later-round wide receivers and was convinced that we should take a certain Juron Criner. I really liked Criner’s size and physicality. In watching his tape, he always seemed to come down with the ball and get up the field quickly. Criner fought for extra yardage after the catch and had good hand-eye coordination. I thought it would have been a solid pick as well as address a need that the team had. The GM of our War Room mellowed me out a little bit and told me it would be a reach; that Criner would probably still be there for our compensatory picks at the end of the fourth round. So, we took the safety Martin instead and crossed our fingers that we’d have another shot at Criner with our 4.33 pick.

Juron Criner was selected at 4.25, capping off a frantic run for wide receivers during the fourth.

We were all a little disappointed that Criner didn’t fall just a few picks further. We would have (meaning Josh, our GM, would have…) looked like geniuses! But, alas, we were left without Criner and going back to our board to see what other wide receivers were available that would still fit that ‘BPA’ title and be a good value.

I proposed we take a wide receiver who had fallen a little bit and was still, in my eyes, a great value pick at that point. Somebody who had the size, speed and verticality to stretch the field. Our GM proposed we take a different receiver, one who was a little further down on our board and, while still very promising, didn’t fit the role of a receiver who could be a legitimate threat down field.

So, here it is:

With the 33rd pick (compensatory) of the fourth round of the 2012 #MockThree NFL draft…

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