Your Perception of the Vikings Draft Might Not Be Accurate
The NFL Draft is a volatile event that sometimes blows our minds with what happens. Every year, experts tell us that a player is flying up draft boards or that one is going to take a precipitous fall.
Your Perception of the Vikings Draft Might Not Be Accurate
The same experts and those just enthusiastic draftniks will say that there is “No way that guy gets past that team,” and they are willing to die on that hill. Watching ESPN, because NFL Network didn’t exist yet and sports radio was still in its infancy, was your only way to get draft information in the 1990s. Mel Kiper was the undisputed king, and his word was gold when it came to the draft.
Before the Internet took off and chatrooms ruled the digital landscape, a player took a long fall before a team finally took a chance on him at pick 21. Folks would have been on that hill back then, and he would never get that far down the boards. The guy taken at 21 by the Vikings in 1998 was Randy Moss. Where did Kiper think he should be drafted? In the 6th or 7th round.
Too many questions about his character caused the slip, but Denny Green had gotten burned on that thinking when he could have drafted Warren Sapp years earlier. Instead, he opted to take defensive end Derrick Alexander. The Vikings were supposed to draft Corey Chavous that year. It just goes to show that you never know what can happen.
Fast forward a few years, and now chatrooms are all over the Internet, as in the early 2000s. Fans can talk with other Vikings and NFL fans all over the world.
One of the top sites was KFAN’s Rube Chat and the Vikings board regarding local information on the team. Paul Allen’s show had been pumping out purple positivity since 1998. Getting information on the team had never been easier, along with looking up stats on players across the college and NFL landscapes to solidify your arguments. In 2003, the Vikings were ready to draft at pick number 7, and the dream was to acquire Terrell Suggs to bolster the pass rush.
I can’t remember how many people told me that the Vikings would have no chance to draft him because he was going to go to the Jets, Cowboys, or Saints before they had a chance to sniff him. I disagreed and said that he was going to be there at seven. Lo and behold, he was sitting right there for the taking, and the crowd chanting “Suggs” at the Vikings draft party could be heard loud and clear over the broadcast.
For those who don’t remember, that was the second year in a row that the Vikings missed their pick, and the ESPN crew wouldn’t shut up about that for the next decade. The story has been that the team attempted to trade back with Baltimore, but the Ravens got a busy signal when they tried to call in their end of the trade with the Vikings, and the league just kept going.
Kevin Williams was the team’s target all along, and they had to sprint to the podium to get the pick in as other teams leapfrogged them. Willams officially went to them at nine, and the Ravens still got Suggs at 10 without losing any draft capital.
A few years later, a player sat in the famous Draft Greenroom for much longer than anyone thought he would. The 2005 great debate was whether Alex Smith or Aaron Rodgers would go number one to the 49ers. Smith got the call, and most figured Rodgers would shortly thereafter.
However, during the draft, the experts started looking at the board and realized that the teams listed didn’t need a new QB. It was a bit of a revelation that day as if they had never considered it. The Vikings, for instance, could have drafted him twice, but Daunte Culpepper was coming off an MVP-type season.
By the way, the Vikings could have made their defense the most feared in the league if they had drafted Shawn Merriman, DeMarcus Ware, or Derrick Johnson with their 1st pick and Marcus Spears with their 2nd pick. This all set the Packers up to draft Rodgers, and they have 25 years of consistent Hall of Fame play from the quarterback position.
In 2006, the fact that Reggie Bush was going 1st overall to the Texans was a foregone conclusion by most. That also didn’t happen, as they drafted Mario Williams instead.
In 2007, I remember getting called “an idiot” because I mapped out how Adrian Peterson would be available to the Vikings at the 7th pick. I remember in 2011 Tweeting back and forth with Paul Allen on how we would get Blaine Gabbert, only to be sniped by the Jaguars. The consolation prize? Christian Ponder. Winner? Neither of us, really.
The 2013 Bills drafted EJ Manuel in a shocker in the 1st round. In 2014, there was the plunge of Johnny “Football” Manziel that no one could understand until a few years later when his off-the-field addictions plunged him out of the league. 2016 gave us Laremy Tunsil in a bong-adapted gas mask video on draft day. 2017 blessed us with the trade that the Bears never had to make to move up to get Mitch Trubisky. 2019 brought us the most trades in NFL Draft history until that was broken in 2023.
It shows why the NFL Draft is the most popular non-game event in sports, with crazy viewership and a fanatical following. Because after all the speculation, mock drafts, and hand-wringing, the experts and the fans never know how it will all work out.
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