Since we're running out of football stuff to talk about, Rick Reilly of ESPN has thrown us a bit of a bone here with his latest column at ESPN.
Reilly looked at three recent NFL Drafts, the 2006, 2007, and 2008 versions. He then did a re-rack of sorts, and projected where the players that were selected in those draft would have been selected if they re-did the entire thing today. How did the Vikings do in these redrafts? We'll tell you after that there jump thing.
We'll start with the 2006 NFL Draft. In the actual draft that year, the Vikings used the 17th overall pick on Iowa linebacker Chad Greenway. Now, we all know that the Vikings made a great pick with Greenway, despite the fact that he lost his entire rookie season after tearing his ACL in the year's first pre-season game. However, in Reilly's new selection process, Greenway actually falls three notches from the 17th pick to the 20th overall pick. That makes him the third linebacker off of the board, one pick ahead of Green Bay linebacker Rocky Dennis, who fell from number 5 overall to number 21.) That's a mild surprise, but there's a pretty big surprise to be found a few picks after that.Defensive end Ray Edwards, who the Vikings selected in the fourth round of the 2006 Draft with the 127th overall selection, makes a huge jump and finds himself in the first round. Edwards jumped exactly 100 spots, with Reilly projecting that he would go 27th if the draft class of 2006 was redistributed today. Edwards was the fourth defensive end off the board in the redraft, behind Mario Williams, Elvis Dumervil, and Tamba Hali.
Moving on to the next redraft, it turns out that running back Adrian Peterson really was the best overall player in the 2007 NFL Draft. Reilly jumps the NFL's best running back from seventh overall to the first selection in the entire draft. I, for one, am shocked (except not really). Another Viking makes his way into the first round as well, as Sidney Rice makes a sizable jump from the 44th overall selection up to number eight overall. That makes him the third wide receiver off of the board, after Calvin Johnson and Dwayne Bowe.
The Vikings don't make an appearance in the 2008 redraft, as they dealt their first rounder that year as part of the Jared Allen trade. It's pretty safe to say that, given the opportunity, the Vikings would make that trade again.