Yes, folks, we're getting to the time where our next pick will have to be submitted.  This time, I think I can be relatively sure that there will be no changing, no backtracking, no flip-flopping, or anything of that nature.

We managed to get ourselves a quarterback in the first round of this draft after the dust completely settled, so I'm going to put guys out there for this go-around that play positions we need people at.  As the best Viking fans on the planet, we all know what positions we're weak at. . .and, remember, there's always a write-in option to include names of folks that you feel should get a look by the Beloved Purple.

So, without any further ado, the floor is open to debate.  I need to have the pick submitted by 9 PM Central time on Sunday, so that gives us about 48 hours to vote, discuss, and debate.  Oh, and if it turns out that the guy that wins our poll is already gone by the time it gets around to our pick, I'll just move down the poll results until I find a guy that's available.

Let 'er rip, ladies and gentlemen!

If you've been keeping track of things over at Mocking the Draft. . .and if you haven't, shame on you. . .you've seen that some of the picks in the 2009 SBNation Mock Draft were re-done after the trade between the Bears and the Broncos that sent Jay Cutler to the Windy City.  Basically, everyone from what was Chicago's selection at #18 onwards was allowed to re-do their pick if they so desired.

I won't spoil the new pick for you until after the jump. . .however, the new write-up is right here.

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Alright, folks. . .things are moving fast and furious behind the scenes of the 2009 SBNation Mock Draft, the best damn mock draft in the business today.

While our friends at Mocking the Draft are only up to the 9th pick in the draft, behind the scenes we're already up to Tampa Bay at #19.  So, with that, I'm going to open this poll for about 24 hours or so, at which point I'll have to submit the pick to the folks at Mocking the Draft for our selection.  There's one guy that's currently available that I really think will not be by the time our pick comes up. . .in reality, said player shouldn't make it past Tampa Bay at #19. . .but if he is, I might jump on him anyway.

So, as we've done in the past, I'm putting names that I think SHOULD be available when the 22nd pick comes up.  If a player has a majority when it comes time for me to submit the pick and it turns out that he's not available for whatever reason, I'll simply slide down to the next guy on the list.  I've given everyone ten choices to choose from. . .but if you think that's not enough, feel free to try to start a write-in campaign for the guy you'd like to see here.

Discuss here, folks. . .and, like I said, the pick needs to be in about 24 48 hours from now!

EDIT:  Due to some miscommunication, our pick is now due on Monday morning, not Sunday morning.  That just means there's more time to vote!

EDIT #2:  There has been what Bill Pidto used to call a developing. . .situation with this pick.  Please see the FanShot on the right-hand side of the page.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the best damn mock draft on the entire internet is underway in earnest, as the first three picks of the 2009 SBNation NFL Mock Draft are up and ready at SBNation's draft site, Mocking the Draft.  The folks at MtD have done an outstanding job since the site's relaunch, and they've got all sorts of player profiles and other goodness for your consumption.

The draft will be moving along at the rate of about three picks a day.  Some of the picks are already known to us SBNation football bloggers, but they'll be going up on the site at that pace.  The hope is that we'll get through two rounds of the draft (no trades) in time for the real thing in April.

With that pace having been established, the first-round pick for the Beloved Purple will be posted at MtD on 30 March.  A couple of days prior to that, I'll be posting a poll and looking for feedback on our pick from you readers out there from a group that we could actually see the Vikings selecting with the 22nd overall pick.  That's the way we've done it for the past couple of SBNation mock drafts, and now that we have more readers than ever, the debate and interaction should be even more outstanding than it has been in the past.

Speaking of mock drafts, I was asked to do Minnesota's pick in the mock draft over at our Titans site, Music City Miracles.  Philadelphia's pick at 21 and our pick at 22 should be up on their site shortly.  Hopefully everyone will like the selection that was made.  They've got up to pick #20 posted on their site if you'd like to peruse it and see who had been taken by the time I got asked to make our selection.  (The player that was taken at #21 isn't relevant, because he's not a guy that's on Minnesota's radar anyway, as you'll soon see.)

So, feel free to fire up the draft discussion, folks.  Over the next few weeks, we'll start taking a bit more in-depth look at some of the players that Minnesota should be looking at with their first-round selection, and maybe some guys that could be there in the second round, too.  Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen, and we'll be back here again tomorrow!

With the NFL Combine set to kick off here over the next few days, millions of people will be tuned to the NFL Network to watch a bunch of guys running around Lucas Oil Stadium in t-shirts and shorts, doing drills, lifting weights, and so forth in an effort to gauge their NFL readiness.

One portion of the Combine that isn't broadcast on the NFL Network. . .and, technically, isn't supposed to be shared with the public at all, is the taking of the Wonderlic Test.  The Wonderlic is a 50-question test in which players are given 12 minutes to answer as many questions as possible as accurately as they can.

The Wonderlic Personnel Test-Revised (WPT-R) is used not just by the NFL, but lots of employers to help measure a candidate’s ability to

-Learn a specific job
-Solve problems
-Understand instructions
-Apply knowledge to new situations
-Benefit from specific job training
-Be satisfied with a particular job

The good folks at Hogs Haven have put together this little site with a sample Wonderlic test on it.  It's ten questions in length, and you're given two minutes and 20 seconds to complete it.  Go ahead and check it out. . .then come back here and, if ye be brave enough, post your scores!  I scored a 45 when I took it because, as the kids today might say, that's just how I roll.

Some notable NFL Combine Wonderlic scores are available after the jump for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy the rest of your Friday, folks, and hopefully we'll be back later with some more of the good stuff for you!

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As promised, ladies and gentlemen, here it is.  What actually happens on 28 and 29 April will probably be drastically different from this, but it's always fun to put together a first guess at this sort of stuff.  So, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it opens up a bit of discussion on the draft front.

In the meantime, I hope that all of you out there and all of your significant others are having an outstanding Valentine's Day. . .and don't forget to celebrate National Half-Priced Heart-Shaped Candy Day tomorrow as well!

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The 2008 Draft is in the history books, and we've now hit the inevitable period where the draft "experts" start handing out their draft "grades" based on their perceptions of how different teams performed over the weekend.  They'll tell us about how so-and-so was a "steal" or how this guy was a "reach" and so forth, and there will be people that will take such talk as the gospel truth.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here laughing my ass off at the entire exercise.

Don't get me wrong. . .we're entering the "dead" portion of the NFL season.  The three months between the end of the draft and the beginning of Training Camp are damn near interminable for die-hard football fans.  I realize that there are people out there that get paid a decent wage to talk about football year-round and, God bless 'em, they've got to come up with something to talk about during that time.

Maybe I'm a bit cynical about the entire thing because I still have echoes in my mind about how great the Vikings' 2005 Draft class allegedly was.  Oh, there was praise all around for the Vikings' selections of Troy Williamson and Erasmus James and Marcus Johnson and on and on and on.  That class, barring James and/or Johnson miraculously "getting it" this season, is on the verge of going down as the worst draft class in Minnesota Vikings history.  Not one, but two first-round flops, a second-rounder that can't get off the bench. . .and, as of now, nobody else from that class to be found on the roster.

Now, liking or not liking the players a team drafts is one thing. . .attempting to grade the players themselves is something entirely different.  For example, I thought that Kansas City did a pretty fine job getting players that could potentially help them in this year's draft.  Everywhere I look, the Chiefs' draft is pretty highly graded by all of the aforementioned "experts."  But if we look back three years from now and Glenn Dorsey has turned into Steve Entman and Branden Albert has become Marcus Johnson and other bad luck occurs for them, giving them an "A" now could potentially end up looking almost as ludicrous as the "A's" and "B's" that the Vikings' 2005 Draft class got are looking right about now.  Draft grades are a lot like Girls Gone Wild videos. . .fun to look at, but not really anything to take too seriously.

Not. . .that. . .I'd. . .know.  *ahem*  Anyway. . .

If you'd like to discuss the Vikings draft "grades" and/or other aspects of this weekend's draft, please feel free to use this here thread to do it.  I, personally, feel that it put the cap on a pretty productive off-season for the Vikings.  I'll hopefully be back later with some more fun and excitement.

And because I can't tell time, we're already about half a dozen picks into Round 3 of the 2008 Draft.

Discuss anything about it here, folks. . .we're at the #70 overall pick, and Minnesota currently doesn't have a pick until #150.