I hope you guys are excited as I am this morning!!  Its like Christmas in April!  I hope when its all said and done we will have unwrapped something akin to a new train set and not the Denny Green-like sweater with ridiculous looking reindeer on the front.

No great last minute draft thoughts, other than musing if we would want to try to get Boldin with our 2nd round pick and maybe next years 4th.  Might be worth it...might not be.  

I still forsee the Vikes trading down with someone, maybe a team that's looking at a RB.  I would say pay close attention to which and how many backs go before we pick.

I've got a feeling this draft won't look anything like any mock you've seen thus far. Watch for Ziggy Hood to go way earlier than projected, as well as Darius Butler.  Watch the WRs fall further than anyone thought too.  I am guessing there won't be a WR picked in the top 10.  

Well, in any event let's hope for some Viking draft magic today.  We've got the front office that isn't afraid to make a few waves so we could be sitting pretty at the start of tomorrow.

Merry Draftmas!!

So, many in the media as well as many of the Viking faithful are getting nervous.  Why?  Because they feel like the Vikings have a team that looks to be a superbowl contender.  For some reason this realization brings with it a panic that "This might be our ony shot!!!" and "If we don't do it this year we are gonna be too old!!!"

Dumb....

Yes, it is true we may be a QB away from being superbowl favorites, but the real name of the game is not "Quick trade away everything for a decent QB under 30!!" but rather keep drafting the best athletes that you can and watch your team grow with roots strong enough to be a dynasty!  The Patriots made no blockbuster deals with their team.  Neither has the Steelers.

On the contrary, teams like the Cowboys trading for Roy Williams, and now likely, the Bears for trading for Jay Cutler have made themselves boom or bust for one season in many ways.  Overpaying to patch up holes in your team leads to a weak foundation. Unless the patch turns out to be truly great (see Jared Allen) then your team ends up bad for quite a while.

People say the Vikes are getting too old and need to try to win it now.  Well, one of those pro bowl players who got too old was Darren Sharper.  He's gone now and does anyone think we're worse off at the position?  Not really.  We might be better even because we DRAFTED a replacement for him.  Winfield and Pat Williams will be next to be replaced as they are getting up there, but we will do so, and at some point this team will have a QB who is a solid starter.  Maybe its Sage Rosenfels or maybe its our 1st round pick in 2010 that we will have because we didn't trade for Cutler.  

Long story short we can feel confident that the Vikes will be worth watching for a long time to come beacuse of good personnel moves by the front office.  

Bears?.........not so much.....  

Best of luck this year Chicago.  It might be your only shot.

So I hear rumors that the Vikings would look to trade up in the first round if the right OT slid a little in the draft.  My question is who is the right one?

I think its a lock that Jason Smith is gone in the first 3 picks.  He seems to be the consensus top tackle.  I'm sure the Vikes are interested but I don't think this is the guy they're thinking of simply because they would have to pay too much to jump into the top 3 to get him.

Michael Oher is an intriguing guy.  He was rated a top 4 player early but as teams started looking at tape they saw a lack of consisten effort.  The other big knock on him is a learning disability.  Some teams question his ability to grasp an NFL blocking scheme.  He could be the Vikes target because a lot of teams see him as a natural right OT, but I can't see them giving up much to take this guy.

Andre Smith might be the best tackle in the draft, but really screwed the pooch at the combine by not working out and then leaving early, without a word claiming he was leaving to get back and train (what's that smell??...oh yeah its BS!!)  He of course blew his pro day putting up 19 reps which was way in the bottom half for OTs this year.  Bottom line, huge talent, huge risk.  I think the Vikes see this guy for what he is, a nightmare waiting to happen.  I don't think they risk it.

Eugene Monroe sounds like a real stud.  If he were to drop past Cinci I could see the Vikes making a move.  He's got great feet and is terrific at both pass blocking and run blocking.  The only hitch is he's probably too valuable as a LT so putting him on the right might not make sense.  Unless we moved McKinnie to the right side I can't see them paying what they'd have to pay to take him.

The only other guy worth metioning is Eben Britton.  The Vikes have a visit set up with him and I think he would be a natural RT for us.  Not a world class athlete but a world class worker and a smart guy.  I would totally think this is their target except that in almost all projections Britton should be available at pick 22 and I've got to believe the Vikes would stand pat to try and take him there versus giving a third round pick to move up a couple spots.  

I don't know what they're thinking on this one.  It could be any one of these 5 guys.  God knows we need a surefire starter to replace Ryan "Oh crap was I supposed to block THAT guy" Cook, so I say do what you have to to get the right guy.

Thoughts?

So all this Matt Cassel talk got me thinking.  Here's a guy who steps into the best possible situation for a back-up Quarterback and I would say plays moderately well.  The big question: "How much of the success of those 11 wins was Cassel and how much was the the other 21 guys on the field?"  

If we are thinking about bringing this guy in to be our starting QB for, let's be honest what a big deal would mean, the next 6-7 years, then maybe the big question should be "How well would Tarvaris Jackson have done if he had replaced Brady instead of Cassel?"  Think about it.  I he had Randy Moss to lauch to deep and Wes Welker picking up twice the yards that Bobby Wade does, what would his stats look like?  Would he be the guy people are talking about spending 14 million on for a season?  

I think Cassel was probably less mistake prone than Tarvaris would have been, but Tarvaris could have had many more big plays than Cassel, especially with his running ability.  As we know Randy Moss is the ultimate security blanket deep.  If Tarvaris kept his deep passes in bounds Randy would have had a bigger season.

Of course what we really want to know is how good Cassel would be for us with the team we have in place, but its fair to think about what the reverse would bring.  Personally, I think Cassel only has the potential to be a slight upgrade for us.  Hardly worth selling the farm.

What do you guys think?

Well, what can one say but that the coaching Gods are smiling down on the Purple faithful?  

First, in what can only be described as shocking, Leslie Frazier gets trumped three times for head coaching positions.  What is perhaps more amazing is when most coaches would be upset, Frazier is found to be excited rather than bitter about returning to the Vikings next season.  Not only is this guy a fantastic coach and defensive coordinator, he is our best insurance policy in case we need to give Childress the boot sooner rather than later.  How could it get any better?

Enter the new coaching dynasty of Steve Spagnuolo.  Steve: "Hmm, you know who would be an awesome linebacker coach?  That friend of mine in Minnesota who can't teach any of eleven guys on special teams to tackle a single player.  Yeah, that's the guy I want on my team."  

Seriously...?

While we were all lamenting the fact that Childress decided he wouldn't even consider changing his staff, the weakest link in our coaching chain was removed for us.  Bon voyage Pauly.  I can't wait to play the Rams and watch Adrian pinballing off of those linebackers.

Coaching Gods be praised!!!