Minnesota Vikings All Time Draft, Round 2 Results

With the second pick in the Vikings all time draft, the readers of The Daily Norseman select:

Jim Kleinsasser, tight end, North Dakota 46%

This was pretty much a landslide, which was mildly surprising. But I guess it shouldn't have been, as Kleinsasser was a popular player among the fans, and combined with his recent retirement after a stellar 13 year career made the results fairly predictable. The next closest was LB Matt Blair at 19%, and Ed White a distant third at 11%. So after two rounds, our all time draft has players that are current or recent Vikings in AP and The People's Champion.

Although there wasn't nearly the talent level we saw in round one, there were some quality guys, and until I was researching this post, I didn't know Hall of Famer Bobby Bell had been drafted by the Vikings but picked the Chiefs instead. Can you imagine what might have been if Bell, who was an All American at the University of Minnesota, chose the Vikings? Would it have been enough to get the Vikings a win in Super Bowl IV? I don't know that, but put Bell at LB with Marshall, Page, Larson and Eller up front...oh my.

One thing that struck me was a real lack of good candidtates to pick from during most of the 1980's. With the first round, there were quality guys--too many to choose from,really--from the early 1960's all the way until modern times, but it wasn't that way with the seond round guys at all. There was talent, obviously, but it seems that just like recent history, the level of quality between the first and second round was pretty substantial during the era of Big Hair Bands.

Speaking of lack of talent, there were some great walks down memory lane in terms of mediocrity in looking over this list. Two earlier names that stick out are running backs Ed Marinaro and Jarvis Redwine. Marinaro became more famous for being a cop on Hill Street Blues than he ever did on a football field, and Redwine was a stud out of Nebraska that wasn't a stud when he came to the NFL. DE Michael Boireau was another Denny Green defensive end pick that never played a down in the NFL, but unlike the sad case of Demetrious Underwood, Boireau suffered an eye injury, I believe it was. And do you guys remember Raonall Smith? Every time the wind blew he got hurt, and I heard the Vikings renamed the trainer's room the Raonall Smith Romper Room. Okay, they didn't, but you get the idea.

And who could forget Tarvaris Jackson? What's that? We all would?

So with two rounds under out belt, we've gone with offense both times. The third round choices will be out later this afternoon.