Draft in hindsight
Reflecting on what has happened post draft it has changed my view of the way the draft fell and how the Vikings drafted.
We immediately moved Remmers to Guard at camp and a quote from Zimmer all but indicates that is where he is staying. With that move alone and the fact that it happened day one leads me to believe that we were not looking that closely at Guards as most of us thought. But we were looking for tackle depth.
I and a host of others predicted a CB in round one and that is the direction we went so I am not surprised with that pick at all. It was the fact that we didn't try and move up for one of those Guards that surprised me some. I think the only Guard we were only interested in may have been Wynn who the Patriots took at 23 and we did not have the will or ammo to move up that far anyway. But unless Wynn fell (he supposedly can play Tackle as well) we were going CB.
So we were targeting CB and Tackle depth. I know we had an interest Kolten Miller and most draftniks had him available around our second round pick. But Miller was overdrafted by the Raiders at 15 which was considered one of the reaches of round 1. Their was no other Tackle taken until us with O'Neill at 62. So O'Neill was the 3rd Tackle drafted after McGlinchey at 9, Miller at 15. Tackles are always overdrafted. O'Niell is a project that might play some at RT as fast as this year but has the skill set to be a LT in the near future. Could be a big payoff long term. Long term in the NFL is two years, ha!
Basically the immediate move of Remmers to Guard makes me rethink that this past draft may have fell the way we wanted in hindsight. We wanted best T/CB in rounds 1 and 2. I don't think it fell perfectly but it wasn't that far off as planned. I do think if Wynn was available in the first we would have taken him and then CB in second. Then if Wynn wasn't available we go best CB and then Tackle. I also think we thought Miller might be available at 62 so we would get Hughes and Miller. Instead we got Hughes and O'Neill.
Hindsight is 20/20 and I am not sure if I am rationalizing our draft or reading too much into the immediate move of Remmers that I did not expect at all.
I liked Carlton Davis, but he doesn't match Hughes in twitch or change of direction. He's a slower Rhodes, and at the NFL level he's gonna get exposed by faster guys. He plays mean and I love the toughness. Connor Williams / Carlton Davis might have been exactly what I would have done, but in retrospect I really like the way it played out after my initial mild shock.
I also suspected Remmers would go to RG where I expect him to thrive. He's got a terrific anchor but lacks length. His feet are just good enough at Tackle but well above average for RG. I can't wait to see this OL on the sweeps. Its going to be unique.
Cowboys announced the Connor Williams pick as a Guard and stated that is where they will play him.
The other thing to remember is that with a quality team and cap challenges, you can't afford to sign all of the starters when they come due. It takes 1-2 years for a good athlete playing CB to learn his responsibilities in Zim's system.
I'm thinking that although Trae has really improved his game, there might not be enough money to re-sign him. He's good enough that someone will throw #1 CB money at him.
Drafting Hughes and getting Hill to come here means we can replace both Waynes and Newman in 2019. Guessing that Alexander gets a contract over Waynes, although Waynes is the better player. But Mac will be cost-effective for his expected role.
@"Jor-El" said:@"FSUVike" said: Meh. McGlinchey was the only Day 1 Starter at either Tackle spot in this Draft. Y'all can debate what ifs for the others but they all had way too many warts for me. Fair perspective - though there were people who found some warts on McGlinchey as well. I just think the only accurate defense of Hughes is that a person believes he has the chance to be a great CB, and the OL prospects available might not be any more than above-average. I can accept that (though I don't necessarily agree). I just hear a lot of people saying as much but trying to reinforce it with, "all the offensive linemen were gone, Vikings had no choice". THAT is not entirely valid, IMO. A compounding issue is that many of us feel that the Vikings, after losing too many QBs to injury, needed an above-average RT immediately more than a great CB.I probably would have picked Connor Williams at #30; I think that would have been less of a reach than when the Raiders took Kolton Miller at #15. Williams could be as good as Ryan Ramczyk was for the Saints last year. At #50 you could still come back and get DB in either Justin Reid or Carlton Davis. But it's hindsight now.
I graded McGlinchey a little higher than Ramcyck, whom I had graded higher than any other Tackle in this class. Just wasn't the year to fix that spot.And I have to believe that the team has seen enough out of Hill or maybe even Collins with Remmers always there in a pinch that they felt comfortable not pursuing a FA.
You don't give KC that kind of guaranteed money and leave RT unaddressed unless you truly believe you already have an in-house answer.
Everyone at the media draft tables thought Connor Williams was the pick. I thought he was going to be the pick as he had more position flexibility than Herandez to play G or T, and fit their scheme better. With that pick, you didn't have to pre-determine where Remmers would play. You could let that work itself out in Training Camp. The Vikings supposedly really liked Williams and had been linked to him a couple of weeks prior to the draft. Clearly none of that mattered. They had Hughes ranked well above the guards and tackles at the end of the first so I think a lot of us were caught by surprise with this pick. I guess we will see how it all works out as I'm not a fan of Hill as a starter, and don't feel O'Neil is strong enough yet to take over at RT and may never be. I'm not a big fan of trying to manufacture strength and bulk with an O-Lineman. He has the length, but he was easily pushed around at the Senior Bowl which concerns me.
I guess after all of this it will all come down to how they do in the season. If they win the bowl Rick will be a genius, If they exit the playoffs early or if Cousins is hurt behind a bad line there will be big questions to answer.
The only thing that matters is what the Wilfs think. I dont think Rick wants to go to them with the answer for a lack of OT is he couldnt find one. Its why he gets the big bucks. Draft, trades, FA, just fix the problem. But no use borrowing trouble.
We all hope it will be a non issue at seasons end.
Good read on Rashod Hill... he's lost some weight to move better and become more consistent at RT.
Sounds like a guy who wants to take the RT job and run with it.
https://www.vikings.com/news/rashod-hill-alters-diet-looks-to-snag-starting-spot
@"StickyBun" said: Looks like Minnesota signed Compton to play OT, not as an OG. Ham's designation is now RB, not FB. Some interesting changes: also, Terence Newman is a DB designation from CB which might mean we see him at safety sporadically.It must be obvious from game video that Remmers is viewed as a much better OG than OT to the coaching staff.
Yea Compton has more playing time at RT then at Guard so he might be the first backup plan if Hill falters and O'Neill is not ready. We will see a lot more in camp about the position but right now it is the weakest position on the team.
@"minny65" said:@"StickyBun" said: Looks like Minnesota signed Compton to play OT, not as an OG. Ham's designation is now RB, not FB. Some interesting changes: also, Terence Newman is a DB designation from CB which might mean we see him at safety sporadically.It must be obvious from game video that Remmers is viewed as a much better OG than OT to the coaching staff.
Yea Compton has more playing time at RT then at Guard so he might be the first backup plan if Hill falters and O'Neill is not ready. We will see a lot more in camp about the position but right now it is the weakest position on the team.
its kind of funny how far off most of us were in our assessments vs what the team is actually doing... we knew they wanted to try and upgrade the RG position, but we didnt see the moves they were making to make sure that Remmers ends up at RG. we were all so focused on drafting a G. I dont think anybody mentioned Compton as a RT option until Sticky here.
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