Draft Final Take One

Three days away from the 2007 NFL college entry draft, the Minnesota Vikings find themselves in both an enviable and an uneviable position. Selecting number seven overall, Minnesota is assured of having at least two bona fide starters available when they draft. Unfortunately, as seems so often to be the case for the Vikings, those two bona fide starters probably will not be players who can fill any of Minnesota's pressing needs, as numerous as those needs might be.

Two Givens

The two players in the draft on whom the Vikings could most count to be long-term starters beginninng in 2007 are Wisconsin left tackle Joe Thomas and LSU safety LaRon Landry. Thomas would do fine as a converted right tackle until the Vikings come to their senses and move the highly overrated Bryant McKinnie. Given Arizona's desperate need for an offensive tackle, however, there is virtually zero chance that Thomas will be available when the Vikings draft at number seven.

Landry should be available at seven, however, making him a tempting selection for the Purple. Despite depth at safety, the Vikings could be excused for selecting Landry with the plan of moving one of their younger safeties to corner and using Landry at safety in 2007. Landry won't be the highest reward selection that the Vikings could make at number seven, but he should be a safe pick and a great stopper for some time, as safeties tend to wear well in the NFL.

The Next Two

After Thomas and Landry, the next two most certain picks are Adrian Peterson and Amobi Akoye. What Peterson loses in years of service by playing a punishing position, he should make up for in production over the short haul. If the Vikings are in a three-year rebuilding mode, as owner Zygi Wilf recently suggested, selecting Peterson would be an odd choice. Of course, odd choices are what this franchise is all about the past few seasons, so Peterson might fit in nicely regardless of the short-term team prospects.

Akoye, on the other hand, offers both production and longevity, assuming his growth stays within reasonable bounds. At only nineteen years old, Akoye toyed with his college opponents in 2006. He's big, he's strong, he's reasonably intelligent, and he gets to the quarterback playing the interior. That's something that certainly can compensate for a weak outside pass rush. And with Patrick Williams probably looking at retirement sometime in the next two years, Akoye would be a nice full-time replacement and a very nice short-term sub.

USA Today-Like Summary

If the Vikings want long-term contribution from their seventh overall pick in this year's draft and want to limit the risk in their selection, the best two options likely to be available to them are Landry and Akoye. If they want great short-term production from a player with a higher risk attached to his selection, Peterson would be a good selection.

Up Next: Weeding Through the Best of the Rest in Round One. Plus, the picks.

On The Come?

Say what? Last week, Minnesota Vikings' player personnel director Rick Spielman apparently broke ranks and let slip one of the franchise's best kept secrets. During an interview with a local writer, Spielman acknowledged that the Vikings remain $25 million under the 2007 salary cap and noted that the team was interested in spending wisely rather than just spending. "We're looking for players on the come," Spielman said.

If you've followed the Vikings since the Red McComb's era, you've probably heard this song and dance before. When a high-ranking Vikings' official says that the team is interested in value and not largesse--despite obtaining little of value and retaining considerable largesse (more like $30 million by most estimates)--it's clear that the shell game has returned to the Twin Cities.

In Mike Tice's last season as head coach, the Vikings finished 9-7. Frustrated by what he viewed to be an underperforming team, Wilf fired Tice, declaring that the team was poised to contend under new head coach Brad Childress.

From that 9-7 team, the Vikings lost one meaningful starter--quarterback Daunte Culpepper who played half of the 2005 season before sustaining a season-ending injury. The team finished with a better record using Daunte's replacement, Brad Johnson, than it had amassed with Daunte as the starter in 2005. Enter Brad Childress.

With better talent at several positions and an improved defense, the 2006 Vikings nevertheless floundered. And while some, including the head coach, resorted to the cliched "if a few plays in a few games had gone differently" bit to suggest that the Vikings easily could have gone 10-6 last year rather than 6-10, some were bold enough to point out that, by the same logic, the team just as easily could have been 2-14--or worse.

Wilf and Childress responded to fan discontent by contending that the team's changing philosophy--from whatever Tice's philosophy was to whatever Childress' philosophy is--would require time to produce results on the field. Never mind that the change to Childress was, according to Zygi, "going to pay immediate dividends." Now, Zygi is contending that that time it will take for the Vikings to show improvement will be somewhere in the neighborhood of three years. And Spielman is offering cover by digging for diamonds in the rough.

I love a good football yarn as much as the next guy, but spare me another story about a guy who can run fast and has potential. Matt Jones was to have been the next unstoppable receiver with his blazing speed and great athleticism. Skeptics scoffed at the notion that a lanky college quarterback who'd never played receiver in college could make the transition to all-world receiver. So far, the skeptics have proven correct.

Spielman wants us to believe that the Vikings have outdone even what Matt Jones is still attempting to do. For, instead of finding a college football player who the Vikings hope to convert to a wide receiver, the Vikings have simply found a really fast guy who supposedly is athletic. And he's never played football.

When Spielman says that the team's philosophy is to find guys on the come rather than guys who have established themselves and are requesting their due pay day, what he is really saying is that the Vikings are looking to fill obvious voids on their club in as penny ante a fashion as possible. Whatever it takes to meet the salary floor in 2007 will do.

It's not on the come. It's come on.

Up Next: Three Good Scenarios for the Vikings in Round One of the Draft.