04-29-2018, 01:37 PM
The Minnesota Vikings hang their hat on finding Danielle Hunter.
They selected Hunter in 2014 based on his insane athleticism rather than focusing on his sack statistics at LSU. The 6-foot-6 pass rusher only managed 4.5 sacks in two seasons as a Tiger starter (though he did have 21 tackles for loss), leaving many to question whether he could learn how to sack the quarterback at the NFL level.
You know the rest of the story. In three NFL seasons, Hunter has 25.5 sacks.
Following Day 3 of the NFL draft, GM Rick Spielman used Hunter as his prime example for the team’s philosophy drafting in the mid-to-late rounds.
“We talk about this all the time in the draft meetings, this guy may be a better football player today, but this guy this guy has such a higher ceiling,” Spielman said. “Our coaches are so eager to work with these athletes and to me that’s when you get an opportunity to make a hit on a guy that can be something, the Danielle Hunter’s of the world. I think when we drafted him in the third I don’t know how popular that was because he had one sack coming out. But, he had such great traits and things these coaches love to work with that he’s developed. That’s the philosophy we’ve kind of used as we’ve went through the draft.”
The Vikings look for specific aspects of a player’s athleticism, not just for Combine heroes. For example, with first-round pick Mike Hughes, head coach Mike Zimmer referred to his ability to get in and out of cuts quickly. Hughes was not the fastest 40-yard dash runner, but ranked in the 86th percentile in the 3-cone drill. The website Relative Athletic Scores, which combines size and Combine results to historical success data to form a 0-10 scale, rated Hughes’ athletic profile similar to Richard Sherman.
“[The] theme was, again, sticking with the athletic traits that we’re looking for and relying on this coaching staff to develop a lot of this young talent,” Spielman said. “Because a lot of the traits that they have, you can’t teach, you can’t coach, but you can sure develop them.”
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/0...le-hunter/
They selected Hunter in 2014 based on his insane athleticism rather than focusing on his sack statistics at LSU. The 6-foot-6 pass rusher only managed 4.5 sacks in two seasons as a Tiger starter (though he did have 21 tackles for loss), leaving many to question whether he could learn how to sack the quarterback at the NFL level.
You know the rest of the story. In three NFL seasons, Hunter has 25.5 sacks.
Following Day 3 of the NFL draft, GM Rick Spielman used Hunter as his prime example for the team’s philosophy drafting in the mid-to-late rounds.
“We talk about this all the time in the draft meetings, this guy may be a better football player today, but this guy this guy has such a higher ceiling,” Spielman said. “Our coaches are so eager to work with these athletes and to me that’s when you get an opportunity to make a hit on a guy that can be something, the Danielle Hunter’s of the world. I think when we drafted him in the third I don’t know how popular that was because he had one sack coming out. But, he had such great traits and things these coaches love to work with that he’s developed. That’s the philosophy we’ve kind of used as we’ve went through the draft.”
The Vikings look for specific aspects of a player’s athleticism, not just for Combine heroes. For example, with first-round pick Mike Hughes, head coach Mike Zimmer referred to his ability to get in and out of cuts quickly. Hughes was not the fastest 40-yard dash runner, but ranked in the 86th percentile in the 3-cone drill. The website Relative Athletic Scores, which combines size and Combine results to historical success data to form a 0-10 scale, rated Hughes’ athletic profile similar to Richard Sherman.
“[The] theme was, again, sticking with the athletic traits that we’re looking for and relying on this coaching staff to develop a lot of this young talent,” Spielman said. “Because a lot of the traits that they have, you can’t teach, you can’t coach, but you can sure develop them.”
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/0...le-hunter/
