Pro Football Weekly Credits Vikings With Some Of Decade's Best Draft Picks

It's getting to be the time of year where the draft magazines start hitting the news stands, and this year the folks at Pro Football Weekly have put a nice little article in their magazine. They lined up every draft since 2000, and made their determination of who was the best and worst pick in each draft spot of the decade. . .like who was the best #1 overall pick of the decade, the best #2 overall pick of the decade, and so on.

The Vikings appear several times, and some of their picks show up on both sides of the ledger. Let's get the obvious bad one out of the way first. Pro Football Weekly determined that the Vikings made the worst overall #7 pick of the decade in the 2005 draft when they selected Troy Williamson out of South Carolina. Here's what they said about the pick.

Randy Moss' supposed replacement with the Vikings was fast but also immature and one-dimensional as a wideout. Williamson was traded to the Jaguars for a sixth-rounder two years later but did nothing there. He once said he would like to fight Brad Childress; neither one is very popular in Minnesota.

That was the only negative for Minnesota. I was personally surprised to not see the name Erasmus James at #18, but PFW determined that Bobby Carpenter was worse.

After the break, we'll have some more positive feedback from PFW about Vikings' past draft picks.

While the Vikings are on the list as having the worst pick of the decade at the #7 slot, you can pretty much say they made up for it two years later when they made the best #7 pick of the decade, according to PFW. You already know that I'm talking about Adrian Peterson, so I'll skip right to the commentary.

Any redo of the '07 draft would have Peterson going first overall, even in this passing age. There were injury and fumble concerns for Peterson coming out, and they still exist to a slight degree, but he's the best individual runner in the NFL.

Ironically, PFW puts a guy that the Vikings meant to take as a #7 pick as the best #9 overall pick of the past decade, as they slide Kevin Williams into that spot.

The NFL is replete with dynamic linebackers, which makes Williams the pick over Brian Urlacher, as spectacular as the Bear has been. There are few three-techniques who have been as consistently dominant since Williams entered the league.

And the Vikings aren't done yet, as they have one more of the best picks of the decade, this one for the best selection of the past ten years at the #22 spot with one Percy Harvin.

Although he has been beset at times by migraines, Harvin has been the most explosive offensive playmaker in the '09 class, as well as a special teams star. The Vikings did their homework on Harvin and were rewarded by his slide to 22.

Two players that are currently Vikings, although not originally drafted by the team, are also on the list. Steve Hutchinson was deemed as the best selection of the decade at the #17 slot, and Patrick Ramsey was tabbed as the worst selection of the decade at #32.

As far as our NFC North rivals, the Packers appear on the list twice, once on each side. . .they get credit for the best pick of the decade at #26 with Clay Matthews, and also for the worst pick of the decade at #10 with Jamal Reynolds. The Bears only appear once, clocking in with the worst #8 overall pick of the decade with their 2001 selection of wide receiver David Terrell. The Lions appear three times on the side you would rather not appear on, receiving the nod for the worst #2 overall pick of the decade (WR Charles Rogers, 2003), the worst #3 overall pick of the decade (QB Joey Harrington, 2002), and the worst #20 overall pick of the decade (offensive lineman Stockar McDougle).

Hopefully, the Vikings can find themselves another Williams, Peterson, or Harvin in the first round of this year's draft.