Quote: @MaroonBells said:
@ Wetlander said:
On the flip side, none of those drafts were viewed as being particularly deep at WR. This draft seems more like the 2014 draft that had Mike Evans, Odell, Sammy Watkins, Kelvin Benjamin, and Brandin Cooks as the headliners and also had Davante Adams, Allen Robinson, Jarvis Landry, and others viewed as strong Day 2 picks.
The Vikings don't need draft a WR with the first round pick they acquired for Diggs. If anything, they have the flexibility to move around the draft and target a wide variety of players. We could move up into the top 15 picks without sabotaging our draft and grab Lamb or Jeudy if they slip out of the top 10... or we could move up for an OT... or we could stay put and use our 2nd or a couple mid-round picks to attack a deep WR class.
The Vikings have plenty of options to fill holes with good prospects.
Oh my, trading up would be insane. Keep 22, take the best OL, WR, CB or DT. Trade 23 down into the early 2nd round and do the same.
I know Jeudy and Lamb are great prospects, but we all tend to suffer from a lapse in memory when it comes to the draft. Corey Davis was supposed to the next Randy Moss. Just saying, there are no sure things. Not sure enough to bundle valuable picks to move up. I like the cost vs. value calculation much better between 20 and 50, especially at receiver.
Re-read what I wrote... I said the Vikings don't need to draft a WR with the first round pick they acquired for Diggs. I threw out trading up for Lamb or Jeudy as an example of the flexibility we have with all this draft capital now. We could trade up for Wills or Wirfs if they slip down outside the top 10... or maybe we move up for Kinlaw if he's there in the mid-teens. It sure seems like at least 3 and maybe 4 QBs could go by 15... when you add in Okudah, Young, Lamb, Jeudy, and all these first round OTs... someone is going to slip and the Vikings would be fools not to consider using one of their 3rds or even their 2nd round pick to trade up and grab a blue chip guy.
I get it... I don't like losing Diggs any more than you, FSU, or whoever is down on this trade. However, let's not act like Diggs didn't want out... cryptic tweets, he threw a fit earlier this year/skipped practices, didn't quell trade rumors, etc. There had to be things said by him behind closed doors during and/or after the season.
The compensation we got was fair IMO, but not a knock your socks off offer that a team would take for a guy who they had no intention of trading. I don't think the Vikings were actively shopping him, but they were more than happy to listen. They took a good, not great deal. That should tell you where Diggs stood with the team... he wanted out and got his wish. Let's not act like the Vikings pulled an O'Brien here and gave away a top WR for nothing.
Quote: @"BarrNone55" said:
Our O just took a step closer to replicating the 49ers.
As long as our D does as well sign me up.
But at what point does this team stop acquiescing to diva Wide Receivers? Seriously? Is there another team in the League that has had 3 WRs force their way out of town?
And can anyone here honestly tell me there is such a thing as a sure-fire way to know if a college kid will or won't turn into one?
Quote: @Hawkvike25 said:
This! let's not forget the Vikes beat the heavy favorite Saints with Diggs having two catches for 19 yards. Diggs is a good player, but let's not overreact and think this team is incapable of torching defenses through the air. There's a lot of time until the season starts...
Exactly my thinking. Diggs is "good," but I certainly haven't been considering him irreplaceable by any means. His season wasn't ALL that great last year, especially considering he was being leaned on as #1 for much of it with Adam out. It definitely wasn't one that produced so much that another solid receiver alongside Thielen couldn't come close to duplicating. Yes, he got over 1k yards but he still just averaged about 4 catches/game and only 6 touchdowns. (Thielen had 7 total tds in the first 6 1/2 games when he went down in Detroit.) There were 43 players in the league that caught more passes last year. Besides that, Diggs was rather frustrating to watch at times with his fumbling and dropped passes at very inopportune moments... Not to mention the helmet thing...
They'll find SOMEone to catch balls in his place. Diggs was a 5th rounder that had rookie numbers (other than yards) that weren't that far behind his '19 season.
Quote: @greediron said:
@ FSUVike said:
And it gets worse. Only 20 Rookies WRs in the entire history of the League have eclipsed 1,000 yards. So even if Minnesota could somehow pick the best of Lamb/Jeudy/Ruggs, none of whom they will have a shot at, the odds of that Rookie replacing Diggs' production is extremely low.
But hey, at least you guys who spend all day on Twitter won't have anything to get cranky about any more!
You don't have to replace Diggs, just draft someone that can pair with AT. It was obvious last year that Adam is the better WR. Our offense missed him badly. Diggs? Not so much.
I don't know if Thielen>Diggs is definitely proven. When either of them is gone our offense has been degraded. They have been a highly effective combination that create greater opportunities for each other and I cannot see Thielen+Johnson anywhere near the same level.
Aside from what a draft pick might provide, my only hope to keep the passing game effective will be a big step forward in production by Irv Smith. Kubiak may want to run full-time 2 TEs and a lot of 1 WR sets - if that's the intent, it's a potential rationale for only needing 1 good WR.
My guess is that Diggs bitched really hard, within the team, about the way the offense ran for the first 4 games last year, and was especially critical of the Atlanta game with 10 pass attempts. Zimmer was really pissy about that later, said something to the effect of "no one can complain about throwing only 10 passes". A lot of people thought that was directed at the press, but I bet it was about Diggs. So regardless of the offense changing over the rest of the season, I think there was a serious break between Diggs and Zimmer and it never healed. If the Vikings traded a young star WR on a good contract because he sent out some goofy tweets, they are incompetent and unforgivable. If they traded him because he and the head coach couldn't get along...well, it's more understandable, though not necessarily forgivable.
I know we’ve all had our times of frustration and disgust with our team at any given moment, but there’s nobody on this board, or anywhere for that matter, that can convince me that Diggs kept his complaints confined to Tweeterville and the Vikings traded him because of the Tweeterville talk.....and he was mad before he had Kirk to blame it on.
I am dumb enough to draft two receivers in the 1st round.
Mims and Higgins.
Quote: @FSUVike said:
But at what point does this team stop acquiescing to diva Wide Receivers? Seriously? Is there another team in the League that has had 3 WRs force their way out of town?
And can anyone here honestly tell me there is such a thing as a sure-fire way to know if a college kid will or won't turn into one?
start shipping them all to buffalo and see how that changes their attitude.
Quote: @FSUVike said:
But at what point does this team stop acquiescing to diva Wide Receivers? Seriously? Is there another team in the League that has had 3 WRs force their way out of town?
And can anyone here honestly tell me there is such a thing as a sure-fire way to know if a college kid will or won't turn into one?
Excellent question, FSU. I think that just like with Owens, Bryant, Brown, or that matter several high profile RB's, the spectacular nature of their scoring plays and their athleticism make them natural divas. Blue collar positions never generate the pub nor the credit for a teams success. On defense CB's are their equivalent.
Quote: @FSUVike said:
@ greediron said:
@ FSUVike said:
And it gets worse. Only 20 Rookies WRs in the entire history of the League have eclipsed 1,000 yards. So even if Minnesota could somehow pick the best of Lamb/Jeudy/Ruggs, none of whom they will have a shot at, the odds of that Rookie replacing Diggs' production is extremely low.
But hey, at least you guys who spend all day on Twitter won't have anything to get cranky about any more!
You don't have to replace Diggs, just draft someone that can pair with AT. It was obvious last year that Adam is the better WR. Our offense missed him badly. Diggs? Not so much.
When Thielen sees the attention Diggs got when he was out and fails to exceed it remind me to revisit this quote.
2 things. Who got the attention when both were on the field? And who still produced when Diggs was out every year prior to last year?
AT was our #1 WR and it wasn't that close.
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