7 Days of Draftsmas: Vikings Take CB Asher Allen in Third Round

The draft is going about how we expected so far:  wide receiver, offensive tackle and now a cornerback, Asher Allen from Georgia.  I ain’t going to pretend I know anything about this guy, so I’ll just paste in a scouting report:

"Allen was one of few Georgia Bulldogs who stayed healthy throughout the 2008 season, and it paid off in the form of a solid junior year. He was a named a semifinalist for the Lott Trophy (defensive impact player of the year) and the Jim Thorpe Award (best cornerback). The junior also has a propensity for coming up big in clutch situations, having been all over the place in UGA’s past two bowl games. Allen had two interceptions in last season’s Sugar Bowl victory over Hawaii and he allowed nothing through the air against Michigan State in the Bulldogs’ recent Capital One Bowl triumph. A dynamic athlete, Allen is also a force on special teams. He can run in the low 4.4s in the 40-yard dash and he returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown against Kentucky in 2007. Allen is just a bit undersized (5’10”) but at 198 pounds he is a physical cornerback, unafraid to mix it up with bigger receivers inside the five-yard area. Georgia has a lot of underclassmen who have NFL decisions to make in the upcoming days, and Allen is one of them. If he returns to school, he would probably emerge as a sure-thing first-rounder in 2010. Even now he could be off the board in the second round."

Key words there:  “physical” – we like those kinds of corners; “a force on special teams” – we’re always looking to upgrade in the return department; “undersized” – well, we have a guy at corner right now who’s small, and he plays pretty big.  Not saying Allen will be the next Antoine Winfield, but from that scouting report, it sounds like a solid pick.

The Vikes don’t pick again until the fifth round (they traded their fourth away for Sage Rosenfels).  They also have no sixth round pick having traded that for Kelly Holcomb a couple years ago.  They will pick twice in the seventh round.