Vikings already kicking Packer ass

[Guest]

@pumpf said:

@Jor-El said:

@JimmyinSD said:
How do other teams not do this?  Especially Jerry?  I have my doubts that this is some new wrinkle in the game.

They don't need to. Some teams have natural advantages in attracting players who have freedom to choose. Weather is a factor, but the biggest is that a lot of players will stay close to home. Texas, California, and Florida each have about 10 division 1 college football programs - and schools in nearby states which don't have an NFL team.
Meanwhile, we can only count on hometown favoritism from the mighty Gopher football program..
I remember many, many years when the Vikings would publish their list of UDFAs and it was just 10 guys from local D3 colleges like St. John's, Macalester, Concordia...and it was obvious they were just tackling dummies for camp.

What's wrong with Concordia?!?  :#

 :p 

Very liberal school. Probably more dangerous to young adults faith than a state university given that Concordia actually has religion classes to try to refute Biblical Christianity. Don't worry mod, I will not go any further.

[Guest]

@AGRforever said:

@MaroonBells said:

@Jor-El said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:
The past 2-3 years the Vikings have really made a shift in how they approach UDFA and the early returns have made them become even more aggressive. The Patriots have been guaranteeing UDFA base salaries for years (to much success) and now other teams are starting to realize its an easy way to add good depth to the roster. Good depth in the sense that a lot of these guys do have the potential to compete for a roster spot. 

When all is set and done if any of the UDFA's made the final 53 it costs the Vikings nothing additional. If they end up cutting them they still have the potential to stay home on the PS or walk away with the Vikings taking a measly $10-30K in dead money. 

It just seems like a natural outgrowth of dropping the draft from 12 rounds to 7 - I'm only surprised it took 20 years for some teams to realize there were a few more rounds of potential players available after the draft ended.

Interesting point of fact: When John Randle went undrafted, the draft was 12 rounds, making his path to stardom even more impressive. 

you have to subtract out comp picks and at least the panthers and jags picks. not sure if theres enough to get a whole round or two?

Good question. There used to be 28 teams picking for 12 rounds, so 336 picks.
Now there 32 picking for 7 rounds, 224 picks. The NFL awarded 32 comp picks in 2018, so a total of 256. That's a difference of 80 more players picked prior to 1994.
One factor hard to consider is the quality of college players in 2018 vs. 1994. I think there are more high-level programs now, but players going to the NFL sooner probably brings that down significantly.