Aaron Donald or Anthony Barr?

[purplefaithful]

If you had a do-over???

[Guest]

Donald and Joseph as our starting DTs would be unreal.  I was surprised we didn't draft Donald.  I'm a Barr fan, but it seems like getting playmaking, big, fast DTs isn't easy to come by. 

Years later, I still think the pick should've been Donald.

[Guest]

Donald was the best player in that draft and should have been drafted by us. i chuckle in remembering at least one of the resident experts saying his arms were too short to be effective. Many others said there was no way we draft him with Floyd on the roster.  Oh well, i really liked that flopped guard from Stanford we drafted a couple years back. 

I predict Barr will sign with a different team as a FA as we will not open the purse strings too wide for him.  Nice player, but underachiever 

[Guest]

Barr is really good and is instrumental in our scheme.  Donald is probably all decade, probably
looking at the HOF with some longevity. 
I think you’d have to got Donald everytime, especially if you had the
foresight to see Floyd getting injured. 
If we still had Floyd playing at a high level that would shift my
opinion a little.

[Guest]

@medaille said:
Barr is really good and is instrumental in our scheme.  Donald is probably all decade, probably
looking at the HOF with some longevity. 
I think you’d have to got Donald everytime, especially if you had the
foresight to see Floyd getting injured. 
If we still had Floyd playing at a high level that would shift my
opinion a little.

Of course you take Donald in hindsight, but for the Vikings they had just drafted Floyd and never could have predicted a botched surgery that might end his career so there's no way they would have drafted Donald if they redid it.

[Guest]

even with Floyd,  at the time I wanted Donald.

no offense to A Barr,  but I wanted Donald.

[Guest]

Dunno, Barr is pretty special as well.  He isn't making huge splash plays, but his size, his speed and especially closing speed is a big part of our excellent D.

Ask yourself this, would Donald have changed the layout of the NFCN? 

[Guest]

I'll play the hindsight game: good grief, yes, we should have taken Aaron Donald - us and all 12 of the teams that passed him in 2014. The presence of Floyd - coming off a modest rookie season - should not have deterred picking him. We run a 4-3, where defensive linemen, not LBs, are the key to our success. DLs also get hurt often, and they often don't work out, regardless of how high they were drafted - which this franchise should know damn well!! IMO the biggest error in drafting and planning player personnel is ASSUMING that some player will "take care of" a certain position and then cross that position off as a need. Vikings have done it often - some good offensive linemen have been passed because someone (like Mike Harris, Phil Loadholt, Matt Kalil...) was assumed to fill the position that an available player would take. Just stupid - if a great player is available, get him, regardless of having some other name penciled in to that spot.

Speaking of Floyd, picking him was very questionable, both in hindsight and at the time. Regardless of whatever he says now say, IMO Spielman was hoping to draft Xavier Rhodes and DeAndre Hopkins in 2013, but when Floyd slid (a reason to be cautious), he picked him, still got Rhodes, but missed Hopkins and pulled the trade back into round 1 to get Patterson. Still drives me nuts...

[Guest]

@JimmyinSD said:
even with Floyd,  at the time I wanted Donald.

no offense to A Barr,  but I wanted Donald.

@greediron said:
Dunno, Barr is pretty special as well.  He isn't making huge splash plays, but his size, his speed and especially closing speed is a big part of our excellent D.

Ask yourself this, would Donald have changed the layout of the NFCN? 

Awwww...thanks guys...

[Guest]

Funny.   Guess I would have to ask, which position means more to a defense?  To our defense?  Tom Johnson is playing pretty well surrounded by all-pro talent.  If we didn't have Barr, who would be playing?  Gedeon?  Lamur?  A different draft pick likely.  But to me, having Barr take away so much of the field means more on our D.