With the next selection in the Minnesota Vikings all time draft, the 6th round pick is:
Matt Birk, C, 89%
He went to Harvard.
Yeah, this one was pretty cut and dried. I figured Birk would win, but I looked at the true believer Joe Webb fans with a wary eye.
In the end, though, Birk dominated this round. Although part of me likes Joe Senser, there's really not a way you can take a four year career with one good season and pick him over a guy that could very well end up in Canton someday. So Birk wins in an even more dominant fashion as Fran Tarkenton did in the third round.
I think Birk's value really wasn't fully appreciated until 2010. The line play slipped in 2009, but a lot of their shortcomings were masked by the mostly otherworldly play of Brett Favre. It was in 2010 that Birk's absence was really noticed, as the line play was atrocious all the way around, and John Sullivan struggled to replace Birk as a solid starter. And it was the first time in over a decade that the Vikings had subpar center play.
I mean think about how good the center play has been for the Vikings over the years--Mick Tingelhoff, Kirk Lowdermilk, Jeff Christy, Birk, and now, to Sullivan's credit, he is really starting to come into his own.
So we're 6 rounds down, 2 to go. We'll have round 7 up later today or tomorrow.