Wide receiver

Leslie Frazier said yesterday that Jerome Simpson filled their need for a deep threat, so receiver may not be a priority at this point in the draft. However, if there’s a guy they love and they think they can get him by trading back into the mid-to-late second? Maybe they do it. I don’t know who this theoretical must-have wide receiver might be though. It’s probably not Alshon Jeffery or Mohamed Sanu. It could be Rueben Randle but I doubt it. Maybe Stephen Hill or Brian Quick but frankly I don’t see that either.

In all honesty, I don’t think the Vikings will go receiver with either of their next two picks, whichever rounds those picks happen to fall in. Too many needs at other spots. They can pick up a Nick Toon or a Marvin McNutt in the fourth. If they want a developmental guy, they can pick up Dale Moss, a man I’ve mentioned before on this blog. Or Mario Louis or someone else in the late rounds. The addition of Kalil, and the help he will provide in getting Christian Ponder more time to throw, will make the whole passing game better. It’s time to work on that defense.

Cornerback

I figured the Vikings would take at least two defensive backs in their first six picks. Yesterday they took Harrison Smith. Will they now take a cornerback? The possibility is good. The best talent left on the board at that position is Janoris Jenkins, and there is plenty of sentiment at least among the fanbase in favor of selecting him. But we know all about Jenkins’ baggage. That baggage may not keep him off the Vikings’ board entirely, but I think it pretty much guarantees they won’t be trading up for him.

If the Vikes do trade back into the second for a cornerback, Trumaine Johnson and Josh Robinson are two possible targets. Another name to keep in mind is Casey Hayward, a player the Vikings liked enough to bring in for a visit. Hayward could still be on the board in the third but there is a chance he won’t be. If the Vikings trade back up into the late second, Hayward might be the man on their mind.

Defensive tackle

The Vikings brought in Dontari Poe for a visit. Does that mean anything? Maybe not. It could be they were simply intrigued by Poe’s physical talent and figured it couldn’t hurt to look him over just in case he dropped to late in the first (he didn’t drop and they came nowhere near selecting him). Or maybe the Poe visit revealed something about Leslie Frazier’s wish list? Nose tackle was a problem last year; Remi Ayodele was a bust and Letroy Guion didn’t develop. Guion was given a decent contract this off-season but not such a huge one that he’s automatically a starter.

The team has said nice things about Guion’s ability to penetrate but the fact is, their defense functions best with a guy at nose tackle who can penetrate at times but is mainly an anchor. Guion is not that guy. Neither is Fred Evans. Pat Williams was but he’s gone. Fat Pat 2.0 could lurk somewhere in this draft and the Vikings could be keen to find him.

So which of the remaining nose tackles fits the bill for the Vikings? I have one name: Alameda Ta’amu. He has the size (348) and he can be a three-down player. He’s a run stuffer with the ability to penetrate. Inconsistency is the main sticking point with him, as it seems to be with every big defensive tackle in this draft. Ta’amu is the only nose I’d trade high back into the second to go after. Lots of people like Jerel Worthy but I’m skeptical on him due to his attitude issues, plus he’s not necessarily a nose in the NFL. If Ta’amu isn’t the guy, I’d just as soon sit and wait to take someone like Mike Martin or Josh Chapman, or maybe pick a project player like Nicolas Jean-Baptiste.

Linebacker

Evaluating the linebacker need is tricky. We know the Vikings don’t have a proven MLB with E.J. Henderson leaving, but frankly MLB becomes a less important position the more pass-happy the league gets. The Vikings figure to play more nickel this year than last, maybe using Harrison Smith almost as a spur, and Chad Greenway and Erin Henderson are perfectly adequate nickel linebackers (be nice to see Greenway do more in coverage but oh well). So do the Vikings even look at linebacker before the fourth round? I’d be surprised. There certainly doesn’t appear to be anyone on the board worth trading back up to go for. The one name that comes up often is Audie Cole, a 5th-round-rated MLB from NC State who the Vikings saw at the Senior Bowl and spoke highly of. Maybe there’s someone they like in the third but I doubt that too.

Guard

It seems unlikely the Vikings would go guard on the second day. The Kalil pick allows them to shift Charlie Johnson to left guard and at right guard they have multiple options including Brandon Fusco, Joe Berger and Geoff Schwartz. One guy the Vikings did kick the tires on is Amini Silatolu and though he looks like a good player, again, do you trade back into the second for him? Kenio Selemete is a guy the Vikings reportedly like and he’s probably a fourth at best. As with linebacker, it probably makes the most sense to sit still and see what trickles down.

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But of course the Vikings don’t have to stay at 35. Thanks to the trade down with the Browns they now have plenty of flexibility when it comes to making further moves, and as it happens Leslie Frazier just indicated in an interview with KFAN that the Vikings do indeed want to trade back up into the late first and target a cornerback. If the Vikes do move up, more options may come into play, including Dre Kirkpatrick who will need to fall past a couple teams, including the Bears and Bengals, in order to slip to the late first.

Of course there’s some danger in believing anything anyone associated with the Vikings says right now. Rick Spielman spouted a bunch of crap for weeks trying to drum up trade interest, and maybe Frazier is doing his version of the same thing. But I think Frazier is being sincere. He’s a defensive guy and you know he wants to upgrade the secondary. Dre Kirkpatrick would be a big-time selection for this team. The scouts rank him as possibly the best zone coverage corner in the entire draft.

There may be some who disagree that the Vikings should next pursue a cornerback, and think wide recevier should be the target instead. But Frazier shot down the idea that receiver is a 2nd round target for the Vikes, saying Jerome Simpson can fill the role the Vikings were looking for. The other day I predicted the Vikings would, because of the Simpson signing, wait until perhaps the fourth to take a receiver. Looks like that could come to pass.

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Nov 13, 2010; Gainesville, FL, USA; Florida Gators cornerback Janoris Jenkins (1) reacts after a play during the first quarter of the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Outside of Morris Claiborne, Janoris Jenkins may be the most talented defensive back in this year’s draft. Unfortunately Janoris Jenkins is also possibly the biggest question mark in the entire draft in terms of character. What has Janoris Jenkins done to deserve all those red flags? For starters, despite being only 23, he has already fathered four kids with three different women. He was also tossed out of the University of Florida after being arrested on two drug-related offenses in a three month span. Florida has a great history of looking the other way when it comes its players’ transgressions, so if a guy actually gets thrown out of there, you know he must have issues.

The latest red flag for Jenkins may seem minor compared to rampant out-of-wedlock procreation, drug arrest and expulsion from a major university known to have a high tolerance for misbehavior, but it does nonetheless add to the ever-growing mountain of evidence against him. At first the story seemed like a blip. It was reported that Jenkins had parted ways with his agent Ben Dogra of CAA. Not a big deal, agent switches happen all the time. But then Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel reported that Jenkins was actually fired by his agent, as opposed to Jenkins doing the firing. That sort of thing does not happen all the time, leading Bianchi to tweet “You’ve got to be pretty shady for agent to fire player.”

We don’t know the whole story of why Jenkins was dropped by Dogra (he has since been picked up by Malik Shareef who also reps Victor Cruz) but teams will certainly look into it. It could be Dogra found out something new about Jenkins that has yet to be made public (more baby mamas?), or it could be there was a personal issue between the two. Either way, this story doesn’t look good for Jenkins. His draft stock was already trending downward to begin with, and now it’s in danger of taking a Vontaze Burfict-like nosedive.

So how should the Vikings look at this? If things get much worse for Jenkins, the Vikes won’t have any decision to make about him whatsoever, cause he’ll be off their draft board (and everyone else’s). As things stand now though, Jenkins is still considered a second round prospect (he would be high first round if not for the drama). All things being equal, the Vikings would be delighted to snap up a player of Jenkins’ abilities with the 35th overall pick. But like every other team, the Vikings must be sensitive to Jenkins’ personal history, which now includes this agent thing. The Vikings may in fact be more sensitive to Jenkins’ baggage that other teams given last year’s whole mess with Chris Cook and the slight PR hit they have taken by retaining him after he was charged with domestic assault (he was cleared of those charges but this doesn’t matter in the eyes of some).

The thought of Janoris Jenkins and Chris Cook lining up at the two outside cornerback positions with Antoine Winfield inside is an enticing one from a pure football perspective. And it can be made real IF the Vikings are willing to take a huge chance on a guy who by all indications is a massive turd. Once in awhile you just have to take that kind of risk, and if I were the Vikings I would seriously consider it. By this point, they appear to have covered themselves decently with secondary talent, having signed Zack Bowman and Chris Carr to free agent contracts. Were I in a speculative sort of mood, I might even posit that Bowman and Carr were added specifically to set the stage for a dice-roll on Jenkins. But I’m not, so I won’t make that assertion.

I will say that Jenkins’ talent is undeniable and as a fan I would get a tingle of excitement at the thought of him being added to our secondary. My guess is that the Vikings will look hard at Jenkins before making up their mind. If they pass, I’ll understand. If they take him, I’ll be ready to roll with it until at least baby mama #10.

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