2007 Draft Review

Well the draft is over, the Vikings are signing a bunch of undrafted free agents who are all sure to be the next John Randle. But lets worry about the actual draft picks. Here are my thoughts...

1st round (#7) - Adrian Peterson - as discussed before I think this was absolutely the right pick. Tremendous upside to be an elusive and fast game breaker at RB. If our OL can gel better than they did last year we could move from a good ground game to one of the best in the league. Rumors of his injured clavical do not concern me at this point. Even if he elects to have surgery and miss the early part of 2007. We still have Chester and we are not expecting AP to carry the load with this offense just yet.

Rick Spielman was interviewed on ESPN radio and brought up an excellent point that most successful teams have a couple reliable and often diverse RBs that they count on. I like this pick, AP may not be the next Barry Sanders but he should be successful and I don't see any argument that this was not the correct pick at this point. Years down the road we may look back and dream of Brady Quinn in purple but we weren't the only ones to pass on him. And most importantly is that in my quick math QBs drafted in the top 10 have about a 50% success rate, whereas RBs have a much higher success rate. You can't fault this pick and now we hope for health and improved OL play.

2nd Round (#44) - Sydney Rice, WR, SC - This will be the controversial pick of the weekend, we traded down in the 2nd round since there were a handful of WRs still available. We then passed on Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith of USC and took Rice of South Carolina. Some reports are that he is very talented and some reports are less flattering. The Good? He is 6'3" with a near 40" vertical. Brad the Red Hot Childress Pepper (BRHCP) tells us that he has good hands. So combine those and you have a playmaker who can be your possession and red zone guy. Other reports are that he is immature and overly confident in his abilities. I am not a fan of Jarrett or Smith really so I'm OK with this pick. Drafting AP in the first was the right move regardless of what happens down the road, this pick however will surely be debated down the road.

3rd Round - Marcus McCauley, CB, Fresno State - I like this pick a LOT. Many reports are that after his Jr year MM was a 1st round lock and maybe a top 10 or 15 pick. He has good size and speed. So why did he drop to the 3rd round you ask? Well, he kind of sucked his Sr. year and was even benched. Ooooh great we spent our 3rd round pick on a guy who was benched at Fresno State on a team that went 4-8! Obviously your Kool Aid has gone stale in the offseason. Here is the RIGHT way to view this pick. MM's soph and jr seasons were fantastic because he had others around him who knew how to do their own jobs. His Sr. year they all graduated and he tried to make up for the mistakes of the guys around him. When he tried to do too much he wasn't able to perform his own job. Well this is the NFL, he can concentrate on doing his own job and he'll be JUST FINE. And really with a 3rd round pick taking a gamble on a guy with 1st round talent is one worth taking.

The rest of the picks...
4th - Brian Robison, DE, Texas - good size, "blue collar" work ethic and big vertical.
5th - Aundrae Allison, WR, East Carolina - scoutsInc had him as high as a 3rd round pick so this is at least good value.
6th - Rufus Alexander, OLB, Oklahoma
7th - Tyler Thigpen, QB, Coastal Carolina - this one seems odd but rumors are that they'll convert Thigpen to another position.
7th - Chandler Williams, WR, Florida International