The Vikings wrapped up the NFL Draft last Sunday and now
that the dust has had a chance to settle, the Vikings clearly plundered the
college ranks grabbing three top talents at key positions of need. The Norsemen
had treasure fall into their laps on April 25th, grabbing Florida defensive
tackle Shariff Floyd (who inexplicably fell to them) at pick 23, Florida State
cornerback Xavier Rhodes at pick 25, and then traded with New England to get
back in the first round to address the wide receiver corps with Tennessee
wideout Cordarrelle Patterson at pick 29.
Rarely does a team have three picks in the first round and what makes
every Viking fan excited is that on paper, Minnesota vastly improved three team
needs in one night. This is a playoff
team that just got a lot better—and that was just Thursday.
On Saturday, day three of the draft, the Vikings added Penn
State linebacker Gerald Hodges in the fourth round, UCLA punter Jeff Locke in
the fifth round, offensive lineman Jeff Baca in the sixth round as well as
three picks in the seventh round. Those
picks included a second Penn State linebacker, Michael Mauti, with pick number
213, offensive guard Travis Bond with pick 214 and then their last pick on
Florida State defensive tackle Everett Dawkins with pick number 229.
But clearly the highlights were in Day 1 on Thursday night
with the entire world watching. Most
prior drafts had Floyd, Rhodes, and even Patterson not even being available to
Minnesota. Some assumed the Vikings
would use their second pick to trade up for Notre Dame linebacker Manti Teo,
but that never materialized, as the controversial linebacker fell all the way
to San Diego in the second round.
Shariff Floyd, in particular, could be the steal of the draft at pick
23. Some had him going as early as
number three to the Oakland Raiders, who had a laughable defense for most of
last year. Instead, Floyd brings his
Warren Sapp-like skills to a Cover 2 defense that badly needed pass rush up the
middle to make life easier on sack lords Jared Allen and Kevin Williams. Floyd is a disruptive, quick off the ball,
6’3 297 pound strong lineman who is the rare three-technique, like Sapp who shoots
gaps and can stop the run on the way to the quarterback.
Xavier Rhodes, the Vikings second pick in the draft, is a long
6’2 210 pound corner who excels at press man and also can play zone. He is incredibly long and has great speed
(4.43) for a man his size. Confident
with great change of direction ability, Rhodes can leap and find the ball on
deep routes with a great plant-and-go burst.
Clearly the Vikings were analyzing the 100-receptions –per-year mammoth
receivers (Calvin Johnson, Brandon
Marshall) they play four times a year when they made this pick He was thought to be a mid-first round pick
and again, and fell to the Vikings at 25.
Rhodes was a shut-down corner at Florida State and a ball hawk to boot
and compares favorably to the Patriots Aqib Talib, hopefully minus the headaches.
As if that haul wasn’t enough, Rick Spielman and the Vikings
most surprising move was likely swapping with New England back into the first
round, address the offense, picking Cordarelle Patterson with the 29. There is no denying Patterson’s talent with
the ball in his hands and will make an immediate impact on the return
game. Although we are slightly concerned
with the learning curve he may need to adjust to the NFL game there is no
denying Patterson represents great value at 29. He was no worse than the third best receiver
available according to draft experts and projects to be a faster Dwayne Bowe,
with matching physicality.
In the future, both Floyd and Patterson will command
double-teams, creating mismatches for the other Vikings All-Pros. This draft was monumental in turning the
Vikings into a more balanced attack on both sides of the ball and the future
looks extremely bright for the 10-6 club.
No NFC North team has improved as much as Minnesota at this point in the
offseason, and with just a little more consistency on offense and continued
development on defense this team is ready to make some noise in 2013. We’ll dig
in the trenches next week to discuss the later picks since the first round was
such a major steal.
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