ESPN: Wide Receiver Spot Still Needs Vikings’ Attention

With free agency all but completed and the 2017 NFL Draft officially in the books, we’re now at the point where we need to look at the Minnesota Vikings’ roster and see where some of the weak points are still located.

Behind the great E$PN paywall, Cian Fahey from Football Outsiders has taken a look at all of the rosters in the NFL and determined where the biggest weakness is. For the Vikings, he’s declared the wide receiver position to be the biggest remaining issue for our favorite football team.

Dalvin Cook was a somewhat surprising selection for the Vikings in the second round of the draft. Cook's value at that spot must have appealed to the Vikings, because they could have easily waited on running back with Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon on the roster. Cook was the only skill-position player the Vikings took before the fifth round, when they added two rookie receivers.Those two rookies will join a crowded receiver depth chart that lacks a true third option to rely on. Ideally, the Vikings would bring in an established veteran to compete with Laquon Treadwell for that spot. Anquan Boldin is still available.

Looking at the depth chart the way things stand right now, Treadwell would, in fact, be the third wide receiver if the season were to start today. . .pretty much by default. Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen are obviously the top two names on the depth chart, but behind them are currently Treadwell and Jarius Wright (the latter of whom had all of 11 catches last season, nearly half of which came in a meaningless season finale). After the top four, here are the wide receivers the Vikings currently list on the roster:

• Rodney Adams (rookie)
• Moritz Böhringer
• Stacy Coley (rookie)
• Isaac Fruechte
• Cayleb Jones
• Mitch Mathews
• R.J. Shelton (rookie)

We know that the team has been in discussions with former Cardinals and Patriots receiver Michael Floyd, and it sounds like there’s a decent chance of the team bringing him in. If the Vikings do decide to sign Floyd to a deal, he’d certainly stand a pretty good chance of immediately becoming the Vikings’ #3 receiver. I’m guessing that Treadwell would be given every opportunity to take that spot in Training Camp, but given that Floyd has a pretty solid history of production in the NFL. . .compared to Treadwell, in any case. . .he’d be your third guy at the start of Training Camp.

The Vikings have done a pretty solid job of filling the holes in their roster over the course of this offseason, but there are still some issues that they could stand to address.