With their fourth-round pick, the 106th selection overall, the Minnesota Vikings have selected Iowa defensive tackle Christian Ballard.
Ballard was Mike Mayock's best available player going into today, according to his list on the NFL Network. Mayock has also said that he had second-round grades from the entire league, but slid to the fourth round because of an off-field issue. No details on what that was.
With Pat Williams probably being gone from Minnesota and Kevin Williams likely to be suspended for the first four games of the 2011 NFL Season, the 6'4", 285-pounder will have a chance to make an immediate impact for the Vikings' defense.
He originally came to Iowa as a tight end. . .he runs a 4.70 40-yard dash. . .but moved to defense as a freshman, and this year was an Honorable Mention for the All-Big Ten team.
This is another very good value pick for the Vikings. . .he was one of the consensus best players available at this point, and the Vikings jumped on him. We'll have more on this pick and the rest of Minnesota's picks later on today.
With this pick, I believe the Vikings have also set a record for the most players named Christian selected in a single draft. Now, if we can just get a guy named Edge. . .
Welcome to Minnesota, Christian Ballard.