FanPost

Reflecting on the Vikings first Pick last year

This past week or so, I've been wondering, how were the other picks doing that the Vikings were supposedly "considering" to take with the 3rd pick in last year's draft.

From my memory, about 50% of people wanted Matt Kalil, 40% Morris Claiborne, 8% Justin Blackmon, 1% Trent Richardson (Yes, some here considered pairing him with AP because of Ap's injury, scary, right?) and 1% wanted a trade down further then we actually traded down, to gain picks and select Riley Reiff.

So, I've taken some time out to show what these other selections are doing.

Let's start with Justin Blackmon. This is his stat line:

Regular Season 26 250 1
Career 26 250 1

At first glance, I'm thinking to my self, "Gesh, he's sucking. We dodge a bullet there." Then I thought to myself, "Well, there's a saying that WRs don't adjust as quickly to the NFL as quickly as other positions." But then I found this article:

Justin Blackmon hurting Blaine Gabbert, scout says.

Here's a quote from that article:

"(Blackmon has) really hurt Gabbert," one scout told NFL.com and NFL Network's Albert Breer. "I'm not sure his speed, or lack thereof, translates to the pro game -- he can't beat press man coverage. He's just not explosive or quick enough."

This is an issue for a lot of physical, big-bodied receivers when they enter the NFL. They simply can't dominate the opposition with their size like they did in college. Blackmon is good at catching the ball in close quarters, but he hasn't been able to separate.

Ouch. Yeah, it's safe to say that Kalil was the better pick here.

Matt Kalil: 1 Others:0

Next, lets go to the 1% choice. Trent Richardson. Let's check out his statline:

ATT YDS TD
Regular Season 152 575 5
Career 152 575 5

At first glance, I thought: "Wow, Peterson has already nearly doubled this guys total. But the 5 Tds are nice though." So, I searched Trent's ranking in YPC, and Rushing Yards.

Trent is 19th in Rushing Yards. He also has only 3.8 YPC. From a pure rookie ranking, Trent is 3rd behind Dough Martin and Alfred Morris. The only other starter rookie runners (in terms of yards) behind Trent is RG3 and Andrew Luck.

To Sum up, Yeah, Matt Kalil wins again.

Matt Kalil: 2 Others: 0

Next up is none other then, the future shutdown Cowboy, Morris Claiborne. His stat line looks like:

STATS

TACK SOLO AST SACK FF FR YDS INT YDS AVG LNG TD PD STF STFYDS KB
2012 Regular Season 27 22 5 0.0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0

So, he has 5 Pass Deflections, 1 Int, 1 Fumble Recovery, and 27 tackles( Which isn't shown on the chart.) Honestly, I can leave this one up to Mark to analyze his play. It's hard to judge DBs based off of stats. I don't know where to look to find Yards Allowed or Points Scored Against.

Anyways, Morris also was the guy who, if most of you seem the Cowboy vs Eagles game, was getting uncostly penalties and the guy who let Sidney Rice score to beat the Cowboys in a previous week. Sounds like he would fit right in in Minnesota don't it?

I did find this bit on him though:

As brilliant as he has been at times, and as much evidence as the Cowboys have seen to justify spending both their first-round and second-round draft picks on him this past April, Sunday offered plenty of proof that he has a lot more on-the-job learning to do. Claiborne was flagged for five penalties in the game -- more than six entire NFL teams picked up Sunday

Anywho, I don't think right now he would be an upgrade over Kalil.

Kalil: 3 Others: 0

Last but not least. Riley Reiff. I couldn't really find stats for him. But every article I read of him had nothing but postive things to say about him.

A couple of tibits:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/young-lions-leshoure-young-broyles-and-reiff-have-help-detroits-turnaround-offensively/2012/11/07/8078dc1c-2929-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html

http://www.freep.com/article/20121020/SPORTS01/310200100/detroit-lions-riley-Reiff-seems-destined-to-be-starter-on-O-line

http://www.freep.com/article/20121020/SPORTS01/310200100/detroit-lions-riley-Reiff-seems-destined-to-be-starter-on-O-line

So instead of making a judgement on this particular pick, I'm going to hand this on as a tie.

Matt Kalil: 3-0-1 Others: 0-3-1

Overall, the Vikings have seemed to come away with the best value for the team and that particular pick so far. SKol!

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.