Trade Down Curve Ball to Consider

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@TBro said:

@AGRforever said:

The whole draft is a crapshoot.  I like the idea of more cracks at it. 

If you were to bypass drafting an OL with our 1st pick I think you have to go into the open market and find a quality starter or two.  We are short a starting guard and starting tackle right now from a positions unit that wasn't very good last year.  So while I can appreciate taking a run and anyone who would be a difference maker it'd be a hard pill to swallow if the BPA doesn't also fill a hole at OL, DL, S, LB, QB2 or a distant WR3. 

I get it. It's definitely outside the comfort zone for a lot of people to go WR in that situation. What we don't know is what the Vikings plans are for Udoh. I have a feeling that he will get elevated to a starting guard position this year. They have been grooming him for 2 years. If they move Cleveland to Tackle, move Udoh to Guard, then you have 1 starter on the line to fill. Lot's of moving parts. Hopefully Udoh is ready to assume a starting role for us.   

Our recent history at low OL picks turning into something that shouldnt give you any confidence. Every year we have “abc player” should be ready to start etc. Heck I think its a stretch to assume Clevland can just step in and play LT. I also dont like the idea of taking O’neill off RT since hes been pretty dang good at it. 

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@MaroonBells said:

@TBro said:

@AGRforever said:

The whole draft is a crapshoot.  I like the idea of more cracks at it. 

If you were to bypass drafting an OL with our 1st pick I think you have to go into the open market and find a quality starter or two.  We are short a starting guard and starting tackle right now from a positions unit that wasn't very good last year.  So while I can appreciate taking a run and anyone who would be a difference maker it'd be a hard pill to swallow if the BPA doesn't also fill a hole at OL, DL, S, LB, QB2 or a distant WR3. 

I get it. It's definitely outside the comfort zone for a lot of people to go WR in that situation. What we don't know is what the Vikings plans are for Udoh. I have a feeling that he will get elevated to a starting guard position this year. They have been grooming him for 2 years. If they move Cleveland to Tackle, move Udoh to Guard, then you have 1 starter on the line to fill. Lot's of moving parts. Hopefully Udoh is ready to assume a starting role for us.   

I'm hoping that the talks of moving Udoh to guard were simply to get him on the field...and guard was the best position for him considering we had starters on the ends.

If that's the case, then Vikings might be looking at the lineup Geoff mentioned a few weeks ago: O'Neill - Cole - Bradbury - Cleveland - Udoh. If you go into the draft with that, then your pick is obviously a guard to compete with Cole, and a middle round swing tackle to compete with Hill. That's a young, high upside line I'd be happy to go into the season with. 

I did read an article that he was getting work at Guard, but since we haven't seen him perform at that position, we really don't know how he would do on the inside. He looked good at Right Tackle against Mack, but one game isn't a big enough sample size. If we don't trade out of 14, then I'm on board with taking the best of Slater, AVT, or Darrisaw. Honestly we may have a shot at only one of them, or possibly none of them. It's not unrealistic that all three could be gone by 14.