Mid-Season Madness Mock

[thestonedkoala]

Minnesota finishes the season 7-9 and makes some big changes in the off season.

- New Coach: Mike Zimmer (Chip Kelly declines, Kyle Shannon declines)
- Offensive Coordinator: Rob Chudzinski (fired due to Carolina having a bad year)
- Defensive Coordinator: Adam Zimmer

Moving to a 3-4 defense, Minnesota lets Kevin Williams walk. They trade Jared Allen for a pair of 2nd round draft picks and a conditional from Atlanta. They release Joe Webb, Charlie Johnson, John Carlson. They don't re-sign Kevin Williams, Erin Henderson, or Jerome Simpson.

They bring in Adam Levitre as their big free agent with Ray Mauagula from Cincinnati and Ricky Jean-Francois from San Francisco as their other signings. As well they bring in Jason Campbell as backup quarterback.

With a 7-9 record, Minnesota is slated to draft 12th overall.

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Draft:

12th Overall:
Minnesota trades this to St. Louis for a future 1st round pick, the 24th overall pick and 3rd round pick.

24th Overall: Tyler Wilson, QB Arkansas. I think Wilson will slide due to Arkansas being a bad team and him getting knocked out. It works in Minnesota's benefit as they try their hand at a new quarterback.

44th Overall: Kenny Vaccaro, S Texas. Vaccaro slides because Texas' defense has been awful this season. Vaccaro is a gambler and is a heavy hitter but he whiffs a lot as well. He needs to smarten up but can be a home run hitter.

63rd Overall (from Atlanta): Michael Mauti, ILB Penn State. Mauti gives Minnesota another solid linebacker to pair up with Mauagula on the inside.

74th Overall: Marcus Davis, WR Virginia Tech. I think Davis will rise a bit but right now he's graded between a 2-4th round pick on the sites I've read. He gets dinged for not having a great quarterback but could be the big receiver Minnesota needs.

88th Overall (from St. Louis): Da'Rick Rogers, WR Tennessee Tech. Minnesota grabs another wide receiver to fill out their group.

106th Overall: Jamarkus McFarland, DT Oklahoma. Minnesota needs a defensive tackle and picks the best one there is.

118th Overall (from Detroit): Gerald Hodges, LB. Penn State. Minnesota grabs the second linebacker as they need some backups there.

(5-7 is best pick available)

[Heavydan85]

First off, Ray Mauagula has been worse than our linebackers from most of the reports I've seen so far this year...that's not good.

Second, I will never be a fan of a switch to a 3-4 as i think enough teams are using it these days the greatest benefit of the switch isn't what it once was (aka able to find great starters later because they weren't the type of player 4-3 teams needed). Also I think the second biggest benefit (aka teams pratice more against a 4-3 than 3-4 has started to become less and less true). But switching to a more blitz heavy or giants type of 4-3 and abandoning the zone for the most part would be my choice.

Other than that sure not too bad...except without switching to a 3-4 i wouldn't take less than a first+ for allen.
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Thanks to Jgoldiscool for the sig

[vikingsrule]

Mike Zimmer is a 4-3 defensive coordinator, and only ran the 3-4 in Dallas when Wade Phillips was there.

[thestonedkoala]

[chuck44]

Wow ...Glad you arent running the team...this off season and draft sets us back even farther than we are know..
We dont have the athletes to play a 3-4 defense...so your going to depend on a bunch of rookies...not good

Tyler Wilson ..really? there were preseason top 5 and have stunk it up..then you trade and cut our two defensive leaders...

We are only a few spots away from being a very solid..this scenerio puts us into full rebuild mode imo

[SteelKing728]

sounds like a legit 3-4 more years of rebuilding...

No thanks
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Thanks Jamison on that avi.

2013 Adopt a Minnesota Viking - Jared Allen - DE - #69

[thestonedkoala]

[chuck44]

[quote="thestonedkoala"]