Posts tagged: harrison smith

Assessing The Value: Trading Up

April 27, 2012, by 6 comments

Rick Spielman and the Vikings enjoyed their success in the first round that they decided to jump back into for a little more.

After completing a no-brainer trade at the top of the first round (read my assessment here), the team engaged in something a little more risky towards the end of the evening.

The Vikings traded their second round pick (#35) and their original fourth round pick (#98) for the Ravens first rounder (#29) and grabbed Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith.  Targeting Smith wasn’t a huge surprise as he has been the apple of many Vikings fans’ eye for months now, the team has a thing for Notre Dame players, and safety was arguably the team’s biggest need.

We will get into a more in-depth analysis of what Smith brings to the team a little later on, but from a trade value standpoint what exactly did the Vikings do?

According to the old Jimmy Johnson trade chart, found on this page, the Vikings gained 90 value points by moving from 35 to 29.  However, the fourth rounder they gave up is valued at 108 points so the Vikings overpaid a tad, according to this chart.

The newer “Harvard Chart” that claims to account for factors more accurately, including the new CBA, values the 29th pick at 208.7 points.  The 35th and 98th picks combine, according to this chart, for a point value of 268.5.  This chart suggests that Vikings overpaid by more than the old trade chart suggests, but both indicate that they overpaid.

The overpayment is slight, however, and the Vikings obviously targeted Smith enough to move up at all.  If they weren’t quite as smitten with the kid, then they probably would have been content to just sit back and see if he was there as an option at 35.

They got their guy, and it is hard to fault them for that even if they overpaid.  Heck, a few years back, they gave up more than that to move up a short distance and grab Toby Gerhart.  So, at the very least, this trade up was an improvement.

“I guess it went well down there,” Smith said of his work with Vikings staff at the Senior Bowl. “I really like playing for those guys and took to their coaching and I think we kind of got a good feel for each other.”

The Vikings obviously got a good enough “feel” for Harrison to overpay a bit in trading up to get him.

Inside Our War Room: The Risks Continue

April 17, 2012, by 5 comments

(Note: This is a continuation of a series where we take you inside our War Room for the #MockOne draft series. This particular version is for #MockFour. If you are unfamiliar with what it is all about, you should probably start off by reading about what we did in the previous #MockThree. For prior #MockFour posts, check out #MockFour Begins.)

Round 1
Trade – Vikings 1.03 for Rams 1.06, 2.07 and 4.01
1.06 – Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State
Trade – Vikings
1.29 – Jonathan Martin, OT, Stanford

Our first pick of the second round was incredibly difficult. Our war room was essentially tossing and turning between to particular prospects. While both would fill a position of need, they each had qualities that made them drastically different. Player one, while the much safer choice, would provide an immediate upgrade to arguably our weakest area. Player two is potentially a top-10 talent who has some major character concerns that caused his draft stock to drop significantly. I’ll cut straight to the point and tell you who we took then provide some more insight and reasoning. (You’re probably going to want it.)

With the 3rd pick in the 2nd round of the 2012 #MockFour draft…

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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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