I respect your interpretation, LLV. I see where you are coming from. Eventually, there needs to be a young, talented quarterback who comes in and has a shot to become the QBOTF. To me, the statement “It’s a bad quarterback class this year as far as the top guys go” speaks for itself, and includes Bradford and Clausen.

Bradford suffered career-altering injuries on the last two hits he has taken playing football. While he has bulked up, he is not a sure thing healthwise. Rarely did he face a pass rush behind an offensive line composed of standout Sooners like Phil Loadholt, Trent Williams, and Jon Cooper. He is accurate, but he rarely had to throw into a tight window thanks to receivers getting wide open. I would place Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan, when they were draft prospects, ahead of him.

Clausen appears to be a very fine quarterback as well. He doesn’t have as much velocity or accuracy as Bradford, but he is a gamer. The Fighting Irish didn’t have much great talent around him while he was there, other than Golden Tate. His offensive line was poor (and John Sullivan was there for one of those years). Clausen had one great year and two poor years. He has seemed emotionally immature at times, but he is still relatively young. One frightening thing is how closely Clausen lines up with Brady Quinn. Quinn was thought to be a top-ten quarterback, but he utterly busted in Cleveland due to lack of talent, and is a hair away from dropping out of the NFL. While Clausen is above-average, nothing about his game stands out as great. I am just not sure yet what would allow him to be a great quarterback in the NFL. At this point I would rate Clausen slightly behind Bradford, although Bradford’s history of being injured seemingly every time he takes a hit almost pushes Bradford down.

While I rate both of them high because they are quarterbacks, there are still many good players ahead of them, including cornerbacks who will likely be available at pick #30.

As fans, we should not defer to whatever the professionals say about these draft prospects. As amateur commenters and bloggers have proved over and over, we are sometimes more accurate than the professional pundits. We can respect what the Vikings do, or what the scouts say, but we can also have our own voice. And when some scouts say Clausen is great, and some say he’s not so great, that lack of consensus is just one more reason for fans to draw their own conclusion.

If we spend that first round draft pick on a player who contributes right away, that helps the team compete for the Super Bowl. That’s what matters.

As far as the Vikings rarely drafting a quarterback in the first round, think of all the busts that the Vikings passed on. Secondly, the Vikings have never drafted a tight end in the first round, so by that reasoning we should definitely take a tight end this year. Since people aren’t saying that, I don’t see any force to that argument.

Finally, if we draft a quarterback in the first round, that quarterback should play right away. Economically, the Vikings could afford to keep him on the bench. I just think a first rounder should play right away. After Favre retires, the 2011 draft pick can be used for a quarterback who in all likelihood would start at some point during the 2011 season.