Supafreak84's Mock Draft (version 1.0)
After having a chance to look at more tape of different players and what guys fit what we want, this is what I've come up with as an initial projection:
1. (14th) Christian Barmore, DT Alabama- I think in this scenario the Vikings are going to have some interesting players to choose from. You will probably have an elite offensive skill guy and some lineman to pick from, but to me nobody does more for our needs then Barmore who is the top DT in this class. You could argue the Vikings could try to move down a few spots, pick up some draft capitol, and still get Barmore...but there is no guarantee and I don't think you get cute in this situation. Barmore is an early draft entrant with a ton of upside at 6'5"/315 pounds. Started the year slow after a preseason knee injury but dominated as the year went on. 8 sacks on the year and plays with power while constantly pushing the pocket. I think for the Vikings who were constantly pushed around last season on both lines, you know Zimmer will be pounding the table for help along that defensive line. Sticking Barmore inside next to Michael Pierce gives the Vikings a powerful inside presence and 650 pounds of pocket collapsing power for Eric Kendricks to run wild and clean behind. To me this is the biggest impact pick the Vikings could make.
*(trade)*The Vikings have the draft capitol to move up back into the second round and I think they do that in a trade with New Orleans (60) who only has 3 picks in the entire draft and the worst cap situation in football. Vikings give up a 3rd (79th), 4th (116), and a 5th (141) to move up.
2. (60th) Quinn Meinerz, C/G Wisoncsin Whitewater- Small school division III standout who dominated and was the talk of Senior Bowl week. His tape is crazy. Can dunk a basketball at 6'3"/320 and is an incredible athlete. The Vikings need to get more physical on their interior offensive line and I think Meinerz can be plugged in anywhere and present an immediate upgrade and is a perfect scheme fit. If ever there was a lineman that had Minnesota Viking stamped all over him its Meinerz. I'm unsure where his value is at this point post Senior Bowl week but he has certainly skyrocketed and I have no issue with taking him at this point.
3. (91) Caden Sterns, S Texas- Vikings need safety help as I think its unlikely Anthony Harris is retained. Sterns is a three year starter for Texas with nice size 6'1"/210 and displays nice fluidity and really nice instincts. Candidate to start next to Harrison Smith as a rookie.
4. (110) Tommy Tremble, TE Notre Dame- The best blocking TE in this draft class. Absolutely buries defenders regularly which will boost his stock for the Vikings. I'm guessing Kyle Rudolph will be a cap casualty and depth at the position will be needed. Tremble is a good route runner and a big body 6'4"/250 who shows the ability to consistently make tough catches. Didn't post the numbers due to Notre Dame running a lot of multiple TE formations and the ball being distributed amongst them.
4. (125) Elerson Smith, DE UNI- This is just another classic Vikings pick taking a tall (6'6"/260) rangy end and Andre Patterson molding them into a playmaker. Smith is from Minnesota and has added 60 pounds to his frame since stepping foot onto campus. He who hasn't played a ton of football the last couple seasons (covid opt out), but was coached by former Viking Bryce Paup at UNI. He showed out at the Senior Bowl and displayed a nice get off and recognition. Lump of clay...
5. (155) Felipe Franks, QB Arkansas- I have been pounding the table for this organization to roll the dice on a physically gifted QB to mold as a backup...maybe this will be the year. Franks (6'6"/228) can make all the throws and has the arm strength to do it, but needs to develop more consistency in making the easy throws and work on mechanics. Highly recruited prospect out of high school who was a transfer from Florida and had a nice season for Arkansas.
6. (175) Adrian Ealy, OT Oklahoma- Big bodied, long armed, developmental tackle to add to the mix. I'm really hoping the Vikings can bring back Riley Reiff but even if they do depth at the position is needed.
7. (206) Javon McKinley, WR Notre Dame- Big bodied WR who plays the position like a basketball player. Came through as the main target for Ian Book this season in the passing game. Wont wow anybody with his speed or ability to separate but will compete, and the Vikings need more quality competition behind Jefferson/Thielen.
To me this draft makes us a much more physical unit, addresses needs, and add's depth at positions its badly needed.
@"Jor-El" said:@"supafreak84" said: Speaking of Kevin Williams....brings up a draft day memory. Was anybody else beyond pissed that we passed on Terrell Suggs that year? I know I was, but Williams turned out to be a great player for us for a very long time. Well...I was certainly beyond pissed when we passed on EVERYONE at the #7 pick. And passed again. Has any other team EVER done that, just skipped their pick to save money??I did like Suggs also. But I also thought we should pick DT Jimmy Kennedy from Penn State instead of Williams, so what do I know?
Really liked Suggs a lot. Was not scared off by his pedestrian 40. But, was way more pissed off on passing on Sapp. And Marcus Allen.
@"BarrNone55" said:@"Jor-El" said:@"supafreak84" said: Speaking of Kevin Williams....brings up a draft day memory. Was anybody else beyond pissed that we passed on Terrell Suggs that year? I know I was, but Williams turned out to be a great player for us for a very long time. Well...I was certainly beyond pissed when we passed on EVERYONE at the #7 pick. And passed again. Has any other team EVER done that, just skipped their pick to save money??I did like Suggs also. But I also thought we should pick DT Jimmy Kennedy from Penn State instead of Williams, so what do I know?
Really liked Suggs a lot. Was not scared off by his pedestrian 40. But, was way more pissed off on passing on Sapp. And Marcus Allen.
yup....This team may have won a SB with Warren Sapp on that DL instead of Derrick Alexander. Nelson over HOF Marcus Allen hurt a lot too...
Allen was pretty vocal he didnt want to come to MN at the time. Still should have drafted him.
That was such an incredible mess that entire draft lol. The one saving grace was that Kevin Williams turned out to be such a great player for us.
One thing about Viking draft days....they are rarely ever boring one way or the other
@"supafreak84" said: That was such an incredible mess that entire draft lol. The one saving grace was that Kevin Williams turned out to be such a great player for us.One thing about Viking draft days....they are rarely ever boring one way or the other
Better lucky than good...
@"purplefaithful" said:Holler: 4/26 is Vikings' draft infamyApril 26 in Minnesota is a quiet day. Spring is putting its foot down that winter is over and it’s time for the state to transform from brown to green in a hurry after winter reared its final ugly head the previous week. It’s a day like a lot of spring days. You don’t see any disaster documentaries called 4/26. It doesn’t have a tragedy associated with it like Sept. 11 has taken on.
But, in terms of Vikings history, 4/26 is a day that will live in infamy. Twelve years ago today, a war room imploded. That war room was located in Eden Prairie, Minn., and the remnants of that debacle are both comic and tragic in hindsight. I, along with several of my media brethren, were at Ground Zero of this particular comic tragedy.
It all started with a great idea, which most epic failures tend to do. It ended with slack-jawed faces, international ridicule and one geriatric finger that said it all. The Vikings brass thought they were the smartest guys in the room in the days leading up to the 2003 draft. They knew what nobody else did – that defensive tackle Kevin Williams, who was consistently ranked as a mid to late pick in the first round (the 15-25 range), was going to be a star.
The Vikings best and brightest knew they wanted Williams. Sitting with the seventh pick, nobody was envisioning Williams going in that slot. All the attention was going to defensive tackles Dwayne Robertson and Johnathan Sullivan as being potential targets for the Vikings.
Nope. They wanted Big Kev.In the black ops of pre-draft shenanigans and dirty tricks, the Vikings were quietly shuttling prospects in and out of Winter Park under the cloak of secrecy. With one exception – Jimmy Kennedy.
Without warning, Mike Tice shows up to allow the media access to draft prospect Jimmy Kennedy. Full access. Ask away, boys.
That shocking transparency was deeply rooted in the subterfuge of pre-draft machinations. Don’t believe what you read and believe only half of what you see.
Years later, I got a chance to “dot the i’s” on that particular aspect of the 4/26 debacle.
Kennedy came to the Vikings five years later, in 2008, and the first chance I had to get him without snipers able to steal my claim, I cornered him and things got real for a conspiracy theorist.
Kennedy said he knew about 10 minutes after entering Winter Park that the Vikings had no intention of drafting him. He was so put off by the visit that he claimed anything he owned that was purple had to go. He hated the Vikings that much for making him the public pawn in their private chess game. When he was shuttled out to the media, he wasn’t Jimmy Kennedy. He was Red Herring.
No, the Vikings wanted Williams. But nobody could know. Then they got cute. Too cool for school.
So confident they would get Williams at No. 7, the brain wizards starting wondering how far could they trade back and still get Big Ticket?
At No. 7, it was a foregone conclusion that Carson Palmer was going No. 1. Andre Johnson was in the mix and Matt Millen was making a pick (goodbye, trivia answer Charles Rogers). Current Viking Terence Newman was strongly linked to Dallas at No. 5.
Byron Leftwich – a.k.a. Fat Albert – was the player that was the big question mark heading into the draft. Where would he go and what would his value be in the NFL? Two teams had designs on the pick – Jacksonville and Baltimore. The problem was that Jacksonville was at No. 8 and Baltimore was picking 10th.
The Vikings were at seventh and holding all the cards. Unfortunately, even in the war room, they had to hear the buzz of several thousand fans in the Winter Park Fieldhouse being whipped into a frenzy by Paul Allen, the Vikings play-by-play man on their radio network.
Allen thought the Vikings were going to take Arizona State man-beast Terrell Suggs– an edge rusher before the term was coined. He made his high-decibel case to a willing congregation. The chant “Suggs! Suggs! Suggs!” reverberated through the facility.
Meanwhile, the Vikings were furiously attempting to complete a trade with the Ravens to move from No. 7 to No. 10, allow Baltimore to take Leftwich and let Jacksonville and Carolina fend for themselves. The Vikings called in the move to the league office. Baltimore didn’t get it in before the 15-minute clock struck midnight.
When Commissioner Paul Tagliabue hit the podium, the field-house crowd silenced the “Suggs!” chants to hear Tags call out his name.“With the seventh pick of the 2003 draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars select Byron Leftwich, quarterback from Marshall.”
Time stopped for about three seconds. Wait. What? Within seconds, Carolina jumped in and selected offensive tackle Jordan Gross.
The Vikings, convinced the trade had gone through, hurriedly snapped up Williams before Baltimore came to the party. To put the exclamation point on the moment, Baltimore selected Suggs minutes before Tice came out to address the crowd.
Hindsight being 20/20, the best thing that could have happened for the Vikings actually did. They got their man. Thanks to the salary structure of rookie contracts, they got the guy they wanted for less money. It can be argued whether Suggs had the better career, but the brain trust at the Vikings had it right.
But, in the immediacy of news, the egg on the face became an epic fail. Tice approached the surly crowd ready without enough security to stop them. The dust-up turned into a happening.
Tice was greeted with a chorus of boos. He asked the mob to settle down – his audio clip of “OK, calm down. Calm down!” is still played today – and take it easy. They were having none of it.
https://247sports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/Article/Holler-426-is-Vikings-draft-infamy-105207978/
Thank you for sharing this article. I actually forgot about the "failed trade" aspect of sliding from 7 to 9 without compensation. There were reports afterwards that McCombs really did not want to pay the salary for a top 10 pick (and I believe this predated the rookie salary scale). Maybe that was just a slam on McCombs...but maybe the trade story was created to cover his butt.Really interesting to hear that Kennedy was that angry with the team. I'm surprised he even signed here years later.
@"purplefaithful" said:@"supafreak84" said: That was such an incredible mess that entire draft lol. The one saving grace was that Kevin Williams turned out to be such a great player for us.One thing about Viking draft days....they are rarely ever boring one way or the other
Better lucky than good...
What a duo that was, the Lummix and ol' Red....
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