The Charismatic Cam Newton Has Vikings Very Interested

This entire offseason the Vikings haven’t hidden the fact they need a QB. Everything from Leslie Frazier mentioning it at his introductory press conference to numerous things Rick Spielman has said to hiring Matt Ryan’s former QB coach as our new offensive coordinator in Bill Musgrave leads nearly everyone to believe the Vikings will have a new signal caller in 2011.

Just this morning Dan Pompei of the National Football Post reports that the Vikings are “very interested” in Auburn’s Cam Newton and found him to be “charismatic” at the combine. This report should not be taken lightly with Pompei being a solid insider with over 25 years experience covering football (mostly with the Chicago Bears) and being a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors board. Pompei also states that the entire crew of Frazier, Spielman, Musgrave and new QB coach Craig Johnson will head to Alabama in the near future to spend a day with Newton.

This news being said, Newton to the Vikings remains only a small possibility. Newton is widely considered one of the top two QB prospects in this draft with Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert being the other. Also of the 11 teams picking ahead of the Vikings, 7 of them (Carolina, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Arizona, San Francisco, Tennessee and Washington) are debatably in the market for a QB. Obtaining Newton would likely take trading our 2nd round pick to move up in the draft provided Carolina just doesn’t take him #1 overall.

So stay tuned. The draft is still several weeks away and we’ll have to see what other college QBs grab the Vikings attention. Just don’t count us sending a crew to Mississippi. Dylan Favre is only a freshman.

Jon Merckle may be followed on Twitter @thevikingpig