My attempt at a mock

enge0280 · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 5

I'm kind of new to this, but I read mock drafts all the time and I thought I'd give my attempt at what the Vikings could do this offseason. Let me know what you think.

Free agents to resign
Erin Henderson
Hussain Abdullah (if only for special teams)
Letroy Guion (what the heck, he's still young)

I think he is the only one they will bring back. I don't see them resigning anyone else. May as well go with the youth movement right?

Other players not brought back
EJ
Visante
Sage (we can find someone else to hold a clipboard and help coach, I think they sign an undrafted guy to be the practice squad/3rd stringer)

Players to cut...
Anthony Herrera
Cedric Griffen
Antoine Winfield
Remi Ayodele

Free Agents brought in
WR Harry Douglas
CB Mike Grimes
DT Pat Sims
TE John Carlson
S Jarrett Bush

They are all young and/or coming off injury and will help going forward if healthy. Grimes will be the big splash in free agency, but I think the other 4 for sure can contribute.

Draft

Vikings trade #3 to Cleveland for #4 and #37

#4 Riley Reiff LT Iowa
Helps solidify the offensive line, moves Charlie Johnson to left guard and the line is suddently at least average.

#34 Reuben Randle WR LSU
Big, strong and fast. Didn't have a great quarterback in college, but a lot like Sidney Rice will come along and be a downfield threat in a year or two.

#35 Casey Heyward CB Vanderbilt
Good cover 2 corner. Can't have enough of those.

#67 George Iloka S Boise State
Big and could potentially start from day 1, otherwise great depth.

Comp 3rd (For Sidney Rice) Emmanuel Acho LB Texas
Need linebacking depth, since we basically don't have any.

4th Dajohn Harris DT USC
Can never have enough defensive line help

5th Matt Reynolds OL BYU
Tackle in college, could stay there in the pros but also could potentially move to guard.

Comp 5th (For Ray Edwards) Chris Rainey RB/WR/Slot/Athlete Florida
He has speed, and we need some of it. Could be the punt returner/kickoff returner and keep Percy healthier.

6th (from Cleveland) Brandon Taylor S LSU
Good depth

7th Marcel Jones OT Nebraska
Can never have enough good tackles right?

And then I could see us giving camp tryouts/ signing at least 10 udfa's, I don't know the names but I would guess at least a QB or 2, another WR, a couple dlineman and a couple linebackers. We'll see.

Then, you probably have....

QB Ponder, Webb, UDFA
RB Peterson, Gerhart, Rainey
FB D'Imperio
WR Douglas, Harvin, Randle, Jenkins, Jaymar
TE Rudolph, Carlson, Reisner
LT Reiff, Love
LG Johnson, Reynolds
C Sullivan, Cooper, Fusco
RG Fusco, Reynolds
RT Loadhold, Cook

Along with other free agent/udfa options to back up, potentially

DE Allen, Robison, Griffen, Reed
DT Williams, Sims, Guion, Harris
OLB Greenway, E. Henderson, UDFA backups
MLB Brinkley, Acho, CFL guy, UDFA
CB Grimes, Cook, Heyward, Asher, Sherels
S Bush, Raymond, Iloka, Abdullah, Taylor

What do you think? Let me know. We probably aren't really competing this year, but they should be better than last year.

The Gnat · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 34112 Location: Minneapolis

Isn't it Brent Grimes the CB for Atlanta?
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Frank Costello · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:09 pm Post subject:

Not a big fan of it, and to be honest stopped reading after I read the first two picks. Huge reach at 4 for Reiff, and Randle flat out disappears too much.

The only LT worth taking in the top 10 is Kalil, we would potentially pass on a great prospect like Claiborne or even Brockers. Reiff is a safe pick, I will give you that, but he doesn't deserve top 5 money.

Randle has shown flashes, but I just don't like him compared to some of the other WRs who will be around in the 2nd round. Dwayne Bowe he is not, he's more of an Early Doucet. At best a solid number 2.
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Purple Faithful · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 2688

Like the trade down, unlikely we could net an extra 2 for one slot since the only way Cleveland would pay that much (or much more) would be to take RG3. With him off the board, they don't need to move up for anyone & can just try to get Tannehill with their second #1 & top value everywhere else.

As for the selections, Reiff is a fine OT tackle prospect, i suppose, but no OT to me is worth a top 10-12 pick as I don't think that's how you build a team. You do it on the defensive line with pass rushers, QB's, LB's (gotta be able to force the pass & then they gotta be decent in coverage/great pass rushers) or secondary. Once you have that, WR & OL become options. Never take great character over elite talent. Just a philosophy there.

So, at 4, Claiborne & the top DL seem the choices. I think that guy is Brockers & he gives the best positional value to the Vikings Tampa 2 with his penetrating style. He tackles runners on the way to the QB very well as a bonus.

I don't like your second pick, either, then, I'm afraid. Based on your free agent positions, guard, tackle, CB or MLB would be my likely pick. Whichever guy was likeliest to be elite. Rest of the picks are fine, I'm a fan of Iloka.
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Remember when the Vikings passed on Dan Marino because we had Tommy Kramer? ahhh, good times.
2012 Viking Fan:
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Draft like Jerry Jones=good (take an OT top10)

Swaps · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 1682 Location: SKOL!

vike daddy · Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 66567

i agree about the validity of Reiff going highly.

Ponder might have gone 10-30 picks too high, it can be argued (but please not here....) Reiff at #4 isn't more than a few picks too high, at most.

Kalil is highly touted. but i'd rather have Reiff plus another pick or two for other players.
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Frank Costello · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:27 pm Post subject:

If we passed on Claiborne for Reiff, then this organization really does have issues. Sorry.
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vike daddy · Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 66567

Frank Costello · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:51 pm Post subject:

smiley4805 · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 366 Location: Sauk Rapids, MN

Wow, a lot of different opinions on Reiff. This will change, as I believe Reiff's stock will continue to rise. My current draft wish if Kalil is gone at #3, is that we find a trade partner and target Reiff. That would probably be to #4, or #6, as I don't think Reiff will last much longer than that. In my opinion LT is our biggest need, we can potentialy move Johnson inside, and kill two birds with one stone. Real weak free agent class for LT, and I don't see much starter potential from the draft after the top 4 (Kalil, Reiff, Adams, Martin) It would be nice if Adams, or Martin made it to our 2nd round pick, but my guess is they will both be gone.
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zgordo34 · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 669 Location: Rochester, MN

I don't mind reiff as our first pick as long as long as 1) Matt Kalil is gone, and 2) we have signed a guy like Tracy porter or brandon Carr and use our second or one of our third rounders on a guy like stephon gillmore (who I really like in the second) or Josh Robinson in the third
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