In free agency, the Vikings have really only made moves on the offensive side of the football, other than their decision to dump Antoine Winfield. This suggests to me, combined with Rick Spielman’s praise for the defensive talent in this class, that the Vikings plan to address their needs on defense early and often.
For the first time since the Percy Harvin trade, where the Vikings acquired a second first round selection from Seattle, I have updated my 2013 Mock Draft and you can take a look at it by clicking here.
I’ll leave the discussion portion up to you all, for now. Just know this: I was torn on both picks but decided to try and predict what the Vikings will do, not necessarily what I think they should do.
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Trufant, I like it. But MANTI! Geez, I hope not...But it could happen.
I really think Manti is on their radar.
I have a feeling that they already know who they want to draft as their MLB and am hoping it's not Te'o, but it's a likely possibility. I still am not sold that he's a 3 down backer in the NFL.
te'o, ugh, just don't like his bs. if they take him and he's real good, i still don't know. he was a screwball during his time at ND, so being around other ND guys on the vikes doesn't make me feel any better, it's in his dna
Screwball? I assume you are in the "he was in on it" camp?
idk for sure, but how do you have a gf that you've never met? that's screwball, and if he didn't know he was being played, well, that's REALLY naive
Agreed, and I wouldn't want to hire him as a police officer or appoint him CEO of a Fortune 500 but how does any of this translate to being a productive linebacker. That's the question.
it doesn't, and he might work out well, but he'll always have the stigma and maybe the baggage. i'm sure he's hoping he can outplay his perceived nuttiness, and i don't mean that because he might be gay, i don't care, if he's really good is the main issue, but the mlb is a position of leadership on the defense and must command respect. idk if he can get that
PLEASE PLEASE NO TEO! I would consider the draft a failure if the Vikes use a pick on him before the 4th round. He is slow and and not a good fit for the Vikings 34 defense.
When are we getting a 34 defense? Banking on a house cleaning after this season?
My bad. Thats what you get when you try to type when you been up all night.
I'm the kind of guy who could give a sh*t if a guy is gay. Like the Manwich? Have at it. I really, genuinely don't care. I don't have latent urges that you may somehow unmask, and feel all threatened.
But the Te'o thing admittedly creeps me out. I don't get it, and it makes me feel all weird and unpleasant. If he'd just admit he's gay, I could make sense of his whole deal, but he's sticking to his bizarre ass story. WTF is wrong with you? Who does that? I just don't understand.
In any case, if he was a beast, I'd be cool with him in purple, but the only game I watched him play in was the National Championship. Ouch. He looked awful. AWFUL. He was owned. Don't want him.
Homework by the front office will be key, for sure. But, the media looked HARD for a way to draw this story out and it has really kind of died. If they can't find him out as a lie, will the Vikes?
Well, let's not pretend the media hasn't ran with it further because the truth is out or anything; it's because he and those around him have a story and stuck with it. There's no where more to go.
Even without the bizarre headlines I wouldn't want Teo until the third, he's simply not talented enough. I'm sure the NFL talent evaluators see this as well tho so I'm not worried. I like Trufant but Amerson from NC State is my favorite cb in the draft and he'll likely go in the second.
I would disagree... With everything you wrote, haha. But I'm okay with that :)
You don't like Amerson? I'm sure time will tell with Teo but my track record is pretty damn good at picking good draft picks.
Manti Te'o is without question an upgrade from Audie Cole... with that said, I am not sure I would take him with a first round pick? If Spielman does his homework and really likes him, I am ok with it.
Keenan Allen's knee really has me questioning him right now?????????????
I think I would also select Hopkins or Woods over Te'o with that pick.
There's no way our front office takes Manti Teo with Arthur Brown still on the board
I still think Manti has a better chance of being a three down guy over Brown despite all the recent buzz.
Brendan- I agree Arthur Brown looked good at his pro day and he is moving up boards. (Brown ran 4.56 and a 4.66 at his Pro Day with 21 reps on the bench)
Manti has his Pro Day on March 26th. If he runs in the high 4.6 low 4.7 range and can bench 21 reps or more, I think the Vikings will grade Te'o over Brown.
If Manti doesn't do well in the bench or if he runs poorly... he will continue to fall. If that happens, I still think the Vikings like him and will target him later in the draft.
I'm thinking you are putting more stock in these drills than the front office will.
Where was Te'o in the championship game? He was destroyed by Alabama. Alabama has pro level talent. And that game showed Te'o may struggle in the NFL. Don't draft Te'o. Unless it is in the second or third round.
My biggest issue with his play in the national championship is that he obviously allowed the whole girlfriend hoax deal to greatly affect his play on the field. I don't think he got beat up in that game because he couldn't compete physically with Bama, he got beat because his head wasn't right. I don't want to see a guy react to pressure by crapping the bed like that. That is honestly my biggest problem with the whole hoax deal, he wasn't mentally strong enough to put that aside for three hours and play football. If I'm using a first round pick on a guy I am hoping he would have performances like Favre had after his father passed away and Torry Smith had last year for Baltimore after his brother was killed. It's not often that a player has something you can sample at the collegiate level to see how they handle adversity. Te'o does and to me he failed the test.
That's mostly what I wanted to say, but that's a lot of words to type, so I sort of avoided it. I'm glad you summed it up. Agreed.
Manti Te'o is NOT an athletic freak or workout warrior... but he is a very instinctive talented football player.
437 career tackles and 7 ints at ND is no hoax.
Don't get me wrong, he's a good player. But if the Vikings draft Te'o, it better be in the second round.
With our strong ND connection, we'd probably be a good fit for Te'o
i woud rather have Arthur brown from k-state become our 25th pick and the new ilb. he has more raw ability then teo and went from 228 to 236, he is gaining weight to show teams he can play in the middle. I like trufant alot but i dont see the vikings taking a corner that early, maybe another third rounder or with our first fourth.UNlike most people i dont like allen the wideout from cal and i think the vikings dont have to take a receiver with the first two picks.
Agree, plenty of flexibility now on when a WR is targeted.
yeah, we're better off now, but we've just swapped jennings for harvin
we still need a fast deep threat tall end zone wr or two
greedy jumpin jerome hasn't proven himself yet, and childs is a very long shot
wouldn't be surprised if we took one in the first rd.
Agree Jorge...no need to panic and take a receiver if their ain't one worth a darn. DEFENSE is the key!
Isn't A.Brown kind of short?