Vikings draft and UDFAs thread

demoncore1031

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May 18, 2008
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Vikings fans, what do you think?

Looking at the list of UDFAs now, and I see the name Antonio Richardson. When I saw he went undrafted, I was really hoping we would get him. OL Austin Wentworth (Fresno St.) is really the only other name that sticks out to me.

So where do the draft picks fit in?

Anthony Barr - great pick! He will start right away and add some much needed pass rush.

Bridgewater - I like the pick. Not sold on him being an NFL starter for at least a couple of years, but he can't be as bad as Ponder, right?

Crichton - Honestly, I don't know much about this kid, but we needed to add depth on the D-Line

McKinnon - Very excited about this pick. I think he will be a good backup to Peterson and we could use him in various ways.

Yankey - I didn't think he would be available for us in the 5th, but I was wrong. I like this kid. Needs a little bit of coaching on his technique, but he has the physical tools that cannot be coached. Possible starter in the future.

Shamar Stephen - Never even heard his name until we drafted him. What's his story?

Exum - Like Yankey, I think he his the physical tools to be a good backup and maybe a starter one day, just needs some coaching.

Kendall James - Don't know anything about him

Brandon Watts - I think he is going to be a solid backup. Surprised he fell as far as he did.

Jabari Price - Anyone know why he fell to rd 7? He could add some depth in the secondary and I think he will be a stud on special teams.

Thoughts?
 
I love Rick Spielman's aggressiveness: 7 first round picks in the past 3 drafts. Quite the contrast from past drafts where we would let the clock run out during the first round.

Love the Bridgewater pick. We traded up 8 spots and lost only a 4th rounder and we haven't recently drafted well in Round 4.

I'm hoping at least one of those CBs pans out, because our secondary was terrible last year. Other than that I think Zimmer has a pretty good foundation to build on.
 
Wasn't excited about the Barr pick. He's fast but seems like a one trick pony and has only played the position for 2 years...but sounds like Zimmer loved him so I hope he turns into a stud. And there really wasn't anyone left at #9 that excited me so I don't think I would've been pumped no matter who they drafted there.

I'm liking the Bridgewater pick more as the dust settles. Didn't want Johnny FB so glad that didn't happen. Teddy sounds like the anti-Ponder, can read defenses and goes through his progressions. I like that. And a 4 year year starter with the highest completion % and most yards per attempt of any of the QBs in the draft. Like that too.

Crichton just sounds like he's got a non-stop motor and is a tackling machine so I like that.

And I'm intrigued by McKinnon...very fast and played multiple positions...and sounds like a freak athlete.

The rest of the picks the Vikings seemed to get a good 2-3 (sometimes 4) rounds later than they were projected to go so it seems like they got good value for need positions.
 
Vikings UDFA

Pierce Burton [OT] Ole Miss |
Isame Faciane [DT] Florida International |
Dominique Williams [RB] Wagner |
Zach Kerin [C] Toledo
Jake Snyder [DE] Virginia |
Kain Colter [WR] Northwestern |
Austin Wentworth [OL] Fresno State |
Tyler Scott [DL] Northwestern |
Erik Lora [WR] Eastern Illinois |]
AC Leonard [TE] Tennessee State
Donte Foster [WR] Ohio |
Antonio "Tiny" Richardson [T] Tennessee |
Rakim Cox [DE] Villanova |
Matt Hall [T] Bellhaven |
Connor Boffeli [G] Iowa |
Cameron Brate [TE] Harvar
 
Vikings fans, what do you think?.....




Anthony Barr - great pick! He will start right away and add some much needed pass rush.

Bridgewater - I like the pick. Not sold on him being an NFL starter for at least a couple of years, but he can't be as bad as Ponder, right?

Crichton - Honestly, I don't know much about this kid, but we needed to add depth on the D-Line

McKinnon - Very excited about this pick. I think he will be a good backup to Peterson and we could use him in various ways.

Yankey - I didn't think he would be available for us in the 5th, but I was wrong. I like this kid. Needs a little bit of coaching on his technique, but he has the physical tools that cannot be coached. Possible starter in the future.

Shamar Stephen - Never even heard his name until we drafted him. What's his story?

Exum - Like Yankey, I think he his the physical tools to be a good backup and maybe a starter one day, just needs some coaching.

Kendall James - Don't know anything about him

Brandon Watts - I think he is going to be a solid backup. Surprised he fell as far as he did.

Jabari Price - Anyone know why he fell to rd 7? He could add some depth in the secondary and I think he will be a stud on special teams.

Thoughts?

Thought the best value in the draft was Yankey. Liked the fact that they went with Teddy because of his performance against the blitz. Critchton will be player down the road. I was hoping the Vikes drafted McKinnon to play safety. His coach said he would be a stud there.
 
One thing I found interesting was the parallels between Barr and Matt Blair. Not just the same position, but the fact that both are considered athletic "freaks" for their day. Matt's ISU career was a little before my time, but IIRC, he played kind of a rover spot, and fell to the 2nd round because of an injury? Anyway, at 6'5" 229, he was something of an exception at the spot for the day (Ted Hendricks was listed at 6'7" 220, I think), and Barr's 6'5" 255 isn't so far away in the current, bulked up day.
 
I think Barr is a perfect fit, personally. Give him a couple years and he will be a stud! I agree with Yankey being the best value pick for us. I don't think he will start right away, but could in the future. I would say that a lot of the guys we got are excellent athletes, but need to be coached up a bit. McKinnon could be used in a lot of different ways. I'm probably most excited to see him and Barr over everyone else including Bridgewater. Speaking of Teddy. I love the pick. Just a 21 year old kid, but has a huge ceiling IMO.
 
I was hoping we would take dixon from baylor and skov from stanford in the later rounds but other than that i like that we put a bunch of numbers into weak areas. Hopefully getting a fix from it.
 
I was hoping we would take dixon from baylor and skov from stanford in the later rounds but other than that i like that we put a bunch of numbers into weak areas. Hopefully getting a fix from it.

I had a list of guys I wanted and would cross them off when they were drafted. Dixon and Skov were a couple of the very few names left on the list late in the draft. Exum could be a pretty good safety, but I would have liked to add one more. Exum might actually end up starting back there with Harrison Smith just because we don't have many good options.
 
I don't know why everyone hates on Bridgewater. He had a bad Pro Day and he's skinny. He'll fill out just fine and he has three years of outstanding game tape that shows he's an exceptional pro-style passer. He's got the best RB in the league and a hopefully improving defense.

I think he could be the steal of the draft.
 
I'm a Bengals fan, and I have to say you got one helluva head coach in Zim. Hated to see him go, but he was overdue for a HC job. I will probably be rooting for MN now just because of him.
 
One thing that, unfortunately, stood out to me, was how many holes there still will be to fill in next year's draft.

I think they did a decent job. They did what they could.

Holes I saw prior to the draft:

QB (Enormously Huge)- Addressed with Teddy
OLB (Huge)- Addressed with Barr
ILB (Huge)- not addressed, LB by committee will probably be used here?
OLB (Replacing Greenway's terrible play- Not addressed, I'm guessing they will give him a chance with Zimmer
CB2 (Huge)- addressed heavily in later rounds
G- Addressed in 5th with a great value
Scat Back- Addressed higher than probably necessary


Maybe a prototype WR1 is a hole? Jennings was a #1 for GB but he also had rodgers throwing to him. I'm fine with their WRs compared to our other needs.

So basically next draft they might have to address CB2 and a LB spot? Maybe two LB spots if every linebacker on their roster fails.

Safety is something I used to think was a need, but Jamarca Samford is actually a pretty effective player. And they did take a safety later as well.
 
There are still holes, absolutely. But I didn't expect to address every single need in this draft, because there were just too many. QB, taken care of. Backup RB, taken care of (and I love this pick!). OG, taken care of plus we added a solid guy in free agency. OLB, taken care of. Secondary, eh.... Not sure about any of the guys we got, but we did get quite a few of them so I'm sure at least one of them will end up being a contributor. D-Line, not sure how good that DT is, but Crichton will be a good backup DE.

Next year I think we still need a starter quality addition at guard, depth at WR (a star WR would be nice), a starter at ILB, a little more depth on the d-line, and more secondary help.

With the new coaching staff and all of the new players, I think we are headed in the right direction.
 
I don't know if I'm in the minority or not, but I don't understand why people were reluctant to draft Bridgewater. Here is the top QB (for an extended time) in the Draft and a bad pro day was enough for people to go running scared? Personally, I'm excited we got him for a good value in the first round. Zimmer has stated that he will start if he is the better QB and if so, then all the power in the world to him. I think he would benefit more by sitting out a year and letting Cassel mentor him. Let's hope Spielman's second chance with a QB draft pick yields much better results....because it really can't go downhill anymore than it already has, right?

Outside of this, I'd like to see what Jerick McKinnon can do. He seems like a very versatile guy who just needs one role to focus on in order to be, at least, good.
 
I don't know why everyone hates on Bridgewater. He had a bad Pro Day and he's skinny. He'll fill out just fine and he has three years of outstanding game tape that shows he's an exceptional pro-style passer. He's got the best RB in the league and a hopefully improving defense.

I think he could be the steal of the draft.

The Vikings staff also were less than impressed with TB's pro day performance. They set up a follow up private workout that blew away Norv Turner and the rest of the staff. It confirmed what they had observed on the volumes of game tape that had them ranking him as the top QB in the draft. One possible explanation of the pro day misfires is that for some reason he chose to go without his trademark glove on the throwing hand. It was back on for the private workout and his throws were back on target.
 
The Vikings staff also were less than impressed with TB's pro day performance. They set up a follow up private workout that blew away Norv Turner and the rest of the staff. It confirmed what they had observed on the volumes of game tape that had them ranking him as the top QB in the draft. One possible explanation of the pro day misfires is that for some reason he chose to go without his trademark glove on the throwing hand. It was back on for the private workout and his throws were back on target.

Apparently Norv noticed some things at his pro day that they corrected in his private workouts with the Vikings, sounds like Norv was impressed with his ability to be coached and get things fixed so quickly...

Here's an article from January about Teddy...great read...and should give any doubters at least some optimism that Teddy will work out...

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/01/02/teddy-bridgewater-2014-nfl-draft/
 

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