How happy are you with this draft?

[S197]

Now that it's done, I think it was a solid draft with some questionable day 3 picks. I'm a little surprised the Vikings only drafted 1 WR and 1 CB in 9 picks. I would have preferred Quinton Patton over Hodges. I'm agnostic on the Locke pick, not my first choice but at the same time it was only a 5th.

[Eli]

Now that it's done, I think it was a solid draft with some questionable day 3 picks. I'm a little surprised the Vikings only drafted 1 WR and 1 CB in 9 picks. I would have preferred Quinton Patton over Hodges. I'm agnostic on the Locke pick, not my first choice but at the same time it was only a 5th.

Score Sheet (9 picks):

0 QB
0 RB
1 WR
0 TE
2 G
0 OT

2 DT
0 DE
2 LB
1 CB
0 S

1 P

Two guards isn't at all surprising and the second one selected is a huge guy that maybe could also sub as an OT in a backup role. I think the two linebackers were necessary when you're looking for a starter and you have nothing but ST specialists for backups. I'm only surprised at the 2nd DT. Not sure where he fits.

[losperros]

Ahem...did I just step into a naivete trap?

Oh well...great draft!

[Eli]

I think it will prove to be a good draft.

I'm still thinking we gave up too much for Patterson, and that if he was so badly coveted that they they should simply have taken him with the Rhodes pick. Would have rather seen the Vikings with 9 picks that included a 3rd and another 4th. But it's growing on me - Cordarrelle Patterson could be a special player.

I like the linebackers and like the guards, though I think there may have been better offensive linemen on the board.

I'm not a big fan of Kluwe, but it seems that the punter selection was maybe a season or two premature when there were greater team needs. Starting to wonder about Mike Priefer more than anything else after that pick.

[headless_norseman]

If we take Patterson over Rhodes, then who do we take later for a CB? We only took one CB as it was. The trade was as even as it could be. Put it this way. In a deep draft, we came away with 3 impact starters. I just went through all the other teams drafts and some.....are just wow crap. A handful did fairly well with their first 3-4 pics. But there was also a lot of average.

[PurpleKoolaid]

I wanted guard(s) we got a few decent ones. I loved Floyd, never thought that would happen. And Rhodes is awesome. If they wanted him 10 yards off, fine. If they want he and Cook to press every once in a while, GREAT. Plus he looks like a great CB blitzer. Punter is ok, thought this was CK's last shot. Dont like the second LB pick, thats about it.

With the good Patterson work, im giving Spielman a B++ again. Dont like they way he handles some things, but he nails the draft.

[MrPurplenGold]

The Vikings picked up a play makers on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball depth on the OLine, DLine and LB corps and another potential special teams ace in the punter they drafted. I still have questions on how the MLB situation is going work out but at least they'll have competition between maybe hodges, mauti, and cole. All in all I think the Vikings as a team are better after the draft than they were before, which makes it a success in my book.

[mondry]

Voted for pleased, I'm okay with the Patterson trade but I can't get to "kicked ####" or "happy with it."

Hindsight is always 20/20 and this may be unrealistic but I feel like we could have got something like this

#23 Shariff Floyd DT
#25 Xhavier Rhodes CB
#52 Arthur Brown LB
#72 Keenan Allen WR - Trade up using our 5th and a 7th to move 9-12 spots to pick him up as we notice he's sliding quite a bit
#102 Barrett Jones OG
#120 Quinton Patton WR

Of course who knows if that's any better than what we ended up with or not, only time will tell I suppose!

[jackal]

We got some awesome talent on Day One ..

Best DT in the draft (according to many)

Best WR in the draft (according to some)

Big physical corner (top 15 pick) on most boards


then we added Depth...

I am hoping Cole works out at MLB or we get a FA like Urlacher


This was another great draft for the Vikings .. We had the best draft in the league IMO

[hibbingviking]

the draft was deep with wr's. the Vikings must be real happy with there wr corp now. they should have picked rogers or patton to help them compete in the nfc north.

[losperros]

We got some awesome talent on Day One ..

Best DT in the draft (according to many)

Best WR in the draft (according to some)

Big physical corner (top 15 pick) on most boards


then we added Depth...

I am hoping Cole works out at MLB or we get a FA like Urlacher


This was another great draft for the Vikings .. We had the best draft in the league IMO

I completely agree.

I also think Mauti and Dawkins are high value picks for round 7. Both will help depth a lot.

[Juice]

Very happy with Floyd and Rhodes.
At first I thought we maybe gave up too much to grab Patterson but as the draft went on there really wasn't a big drop off in talent from rounds 4-6.
I didn't know much about Baca but I'm really excited to see what he's got.

Nice job Rick & Co.

[hibbingviking]

B- most analysts and experts loved the Vikings draft. the Vikings definitely upgraded, and maybe got the best wr and the best DT in the draft.

[John_Viveiros]

Voted for pleased, I'm okay with the Patterson trade but I can't get to "kicked ####" or "happy with it."

Hindsight is always 20/20 and this may be unrealistic but I feel like we could have got something like this

#23 Shariff Floyd DT
#25 Xhavier Rhodes CB
#52 Arthur Brown LB
#72 Keenan Allen WR - Trade up using our 5th and a 7th to move 9-12 spots to pick him up as we notice he's sliding quite a bit
#102 Barrett Jones OG
#120 Quinton Patton WR

Of course who knows if that's any better than what we ended up with or not, only time will tell I suppose!

That's what I was trying to get a handle on with my "who would we pick at #52" thread.

Limiting myself to no trades (just to keep the permutations manageable) I came up with two scenarios instead of the Patterson/Hodges combo we chose, depending on whether we thought we could get a WR we liked in round 3. Mine were:
#52 Brown
#83 (IIRC) Steadman Bailey
#102 Earl Watford (OG)
#120 Hodges (as before)

(if we were worried about a WR being there for the #83)
#52 Keenan Allen
#83 Watford (in a bit of a reach, but there's not much here except another WR)
#102 Hodges
#120 Patton

So for me, the big trade ends up being Patterson for Brown/Bailey/Watford or Allen/Watford/Patton. The Baca selection lessens the need for Watford. So to simplify for me (YMMV) I'm going with the last combo. Would we rather have Patterson, or Keenan Allen and Quinton Patton. Obviously the jury is out, but I would go with the two guys over the one.

And that's why I downgrade this draft from ecstatic to mostly happy.

[thor]

I'm happy with the first three picks. Not that thrilled with drafting the punter, I like kluwe. Except when he randomly shanks the crap out of it.