Friday, September 21, 2007

Looking for a Distraction

The Minnesota Vikings travel to Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday to take on Kansas City in what many Vikings' fans are viewing as a get-healthy opportunity. Apparently, bettors have a similar view of the game, but in favor of Kansas City. The current line on the game is Kansas City by 3 with Kansas City and Minnesota sharing the lowest under/over on this week's big board at 34. Not even the Cardinals and Ravens best that pick.

If the over/under is off, it's probably will be either because the Vikings' defense stifled Kansas City or because Kansas City took a play out of the Lions' playbook and passed up and down the field against the Vikings. That suggests that this game will either be close or the Chiefs will win big. Neither presents a very appealing viewing opportunity for Vikings' fans.

But, if you're interested in putting a good face on how things are going with this year's Vikings' team, it's worth revisiting one of the disasters that put the Vikings in the predicament in which they currently reside. That disaster is the 2005 draft.

Despite having two first-round picks and eight picks overall, the Vikings can now officially lay claim to having one of the single worst overall drafts in modern NFL history. To date, the Vikings two first-round draft picks--Troy Williamson and Erasmus James--have contributed little if anything to the team and appear one more bad play or injury from being released.

The Vikings' second-round pick in 2005, Marcus Johnson, has been so unimpressive on the field that he cannot even unseat the current incumbent at right tackle, Ryan Cook, despite the fact that Cook easily ranks among the worst starting right tackles in the game. The Vikings selected Johnson after their preferred option, Mike Nugent, went to the Jets, who traded up one pick in front of the Vikings to take Nugent after then head-coach Mike Tice revealed the Vikings' intentions for their number two selection on national television.

At least Williamson, James, and Johnson have seen the field, even if only because they each were high picks and had to be played. Two of the remaining four picks never even played--Dustin Fox and Adrian Ward--while Vikings' fans undoubtedly have already forgotten the limited contributions of the remaining two picks in the team's 2005 draft--Ciatrik Fason, for whom the Vikings traded a fourth-round pick to move up to take, and C.J. Mosely, whom the Vikings traded to the Jets for current backup quarterback Brooks Bollinger.

No matter what happens in Kansas City on Sunday, it cannot get any uglier than that.

Up Next: Around the NFC.

1 comment:

Sam said...

Hey, at least Childress is withholding the identity of Sunday's QB from KC. Then on gameday, it'll be all, SNAP! Whoa! It's gonna totally blow KC's game plan when they find out. They've got Tavaris scouted as a way better tackler than the other guys.