Posts tagged: jarius wright

The Inseparable Pair: Vikings Newest Receivers

May 1, 2012, by 4 comments

Almost everyone has that childhood friend that they’ve known all the way back to elementary school. You grew up down the block from each other and played every day together until the porch lights came on. Because of your close proximity, you also went to elementary school, middle school and then eventually high school together. You had the same teachers and the same friends. You even graduated together. Typically, though, that’s where it ends. Not many childhood friends, especially ones you went to grade school with, end up attending the same universities. At some point, you part ways for various reasons and go on without that childhood friend by your side every step of the way.

That is what makes the story of wide receivers Jarius Wright and Greg Childs so incredibly fascinating.

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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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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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