Scoring the Vikings 2006 Draft

- wadE

For the first time in many years, I did not watch a minute of the NFL Draft. Not even a second. Maybe it has to do with my current spots exile I'm going through. It has not been a conscious decision, but I haven't watching a single NBA (no surprise), NHL (OLN who?), or MLB (Twins stink) game in the past week and a half. Of course I probably have not watched because the T-wolves and Wild aren't in the playoffs and were just awful teams down the stretch this year. Additionally the Twins have gone directly into the shitter, and have been outscored 41-3 in their past 8 games (or something equally ridiculous).

The only good news is that I'm leading my fantasy baseball league... but now I'm getting off track.

So, how does one grade the draft without even watching it? Well you read up on what happened, and figure out how outraged you would have been at the time.

Let's jump in, shall we?

ROUND 1 (17TH Overall) Chad Greenway - LB, Iowa
We were in dire need of a lineback, and Greenway isn't a bad pickup. However, with Jay Cutler and Matt Leinart falling so far it really should have been tempting for the Vikings to trade some of their picks to move up a few spots. I haven't heard confirmation either way, but I hope they at least tried. That move would have forgiven any other mis-steps they made (we'll get to those in a minute). Overall, not a bad pick. As always, time will tell for sure.

ROUND 2 (48TH) Cedric Griffin - DB, Texas
I gotta be honest, I do not know anything about Cedric Griffin. What I read is that he is a skilled corner that hits like a safety. That sounds good to me! Consensus seems to be that this is a decent pick, so I will blow along with the prevailing winds and declare this pick a-ok!

ROUND 2 (51ST) Ryan Cook - OL, New Mexico
Oh my god... this guy is a center, but he's 6 foot 7 inches tall... oh my god... Ok, settle down people. Before you get all flustered by a center being tall, I think the bigger thing was that this guy was considered a second-day pick, and he goes in the 2nd round, nearly in the top 50. Yes, the Vikings needed a backup center, no doubt, but you could have gotten this guy later in the first day if not the first round of the second day. As for being tall, just because traditionally centers have been short does not mean this guy can't play center. It's not like the guy is going to be standing up straight with his hands in the air. Interior lineman are about leverage. If this guy can keep his center of gravity low, I'm sure any QB taller than Doug Flutie isn't going to have a problem.

ROUND 2 (64TH) Tarvaris Jackson - QB, Alabama State
I think the best statement I saw to sum up this pick was, "You shouldn't have to trade up for a sleeper." I also liked the statements that Childress made. He basically said that this guy has a lot of talent but has never had a coach before. I'm sure the staff on the Alabama State football team didn't take any offense to that. I'll hold off on ripping this pick because you never know when the next Kurt Warner or Tom Brady are gonna pop up. Of course neither of them were Division II QBs taken in the second freakin' round! This guy would have been there at your next pick.

ROUND 4 (127TH) Ray Edwards - DE, Purdue
By all accounts, a solid pick. The guy apparently has some "off the field" issues, so it's a bit of a surprise that the Vikings picked him up with all of their talk of having "good character guys", but who knows. Well say this pick has a lot of upside to it.

And last, but not least:

ROUND 5 (149TH) Greg Blue - DB, Georgia
As I mentioned last year: Now here's a guy who will end up on the Viking's Practice Squad...BOOM! </Madden>
Actually, it's probably more like special teams, but you get the picture.

At any rate that was it for the Vikings this year. They traded away their 6th round pick, and I was too lazy to figure out what happend with the 7th round pick. Which is too bad really. Last year's 7th round pick was Adrian Ward (CB : Texas-El Paso). I made a comment about him being "nearly irrelevant" which caused his father to actually email me. I let him know that I didn't have anything against his son, it's just that late round picks are even bigger long shots than first round picks. Needless to say his son didn't make the team, nor any other NFL team. So to the father of Greg Blue, "I hope your son makes the team, but don't go out and buy a brand new car quite yet."

So... my overall grade? B- ... with the upside being that we didn't submit any picks late! And if that is the bar the was set by the previous regime, it's all gravy from there!

See you next year!

Skol Vikings!

- 05/02/2005