Vikings Reportedly Have Interest in a Big, Fast Receiver No One’s Talking About
Sam Neumann
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There’s been a lot of talk about the Vikings selecting a wide receiver in the first round of the 2016 draft, with most reports pointing to TCU wideout Josh Doctson. But a recent report has linked the team to a different big, fast pass catching prospect—a player considerably less familiar to NFL fans and one that could be scooped up in the later rounds.
According to NFL.com, Moritz Boehringer is 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, and runs a 4.39-second 40-yard dash. He also has a 37-inch vertical. And Vikings officials met with him last Wednesday. The catch? He’s only played football for four years, and those four years have been in Germany.
Boehringer spent last season with the Schwaebisch Hall Unicorns of the German Football League, but is eligible for the 2016 NFL Draft and, according to NFL.com, is one of the biggest sleepers this year. If you look at the highlight video at the top of this article, it’s obvious the competition isn’t up to American college standards…or perhaps even high school standards…but Boehringer’s talent is apparent. City Pages reports the Vikings were hoping to sign Boehringer as an undrafted free agent, but more NFL teams are noticing; the Packers, Broncos, and Cardinals have also shown interest already. Boehringer worked out with Florida International prospects at the school’s pro day last Thursday, and it’s unclear how many teams were in attendance.
In Germany’s premier football league, Boehringer was named rookie of the year in 2015, catching 70 passes for 1,461 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Less than a year after the Babatunde Aiyegbusi experiment came to a close, the Vikings are again kicking the tires on a raw, foreign prospect. At this point, it’s still most likely that Boehringer will be available as an undrafted free agent, but a team could get excited and take a late-round flier on him come draft time. With the Vikings obvious need at wide receiver, it will be interesting to see if they make a play for him; no matter his level of experience, those measurables don’t come around very often, and acquiring Boehringer will almost certainly come with very little risk.