Now we get to see which mockers, which speculators, which alleged experts were right, and which were full of crap. Actually they’re all full of crap, but every year a few of them get to gloat because their darts happened to hit the right names. Get your gloating hat ready Shawn Zobel!

The big names on the Vikings dart board have been rehashed so many times that I’m hesitant to bother doing it again. We all know them by heart. Jake Locker. Prince Amukamara. Da’Quan Bowers. Christian Ponder. Tyron Smith. Ryan Kerrigan. Aldon Smith. Dimitrius Underwood. I threw that last one in there to make sure you’re still paying attention.

Actually, I threw Underwood in there because at least I’m not sick of typing his name. Thanks to Jake Locker, the “k” is now completely worn off my keyboard. And all for naught if it turns out the Vikings don’t even draft him!
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If it is indeed the Vikings’ intention to trade down from 12, they shouldn’t have any trouble making that happen. According to Rick Spielman, the Vikings have gotten calls from 3 or 4 teams about moving up to the 12 hole.

Of course, with today’s news that the Titans might take Andy Dalton at 8, the 12 has become a much more interesting hole to be in. If Dalton is taken earlier than expected, the odds increase that Jake Locker or even Blaine Gabbert might fall into the Vikings’ lap.

The Locker-or-Gabbert-to-12 scenario remains a long-shot though. So it still seems very likely that the Vikings will try to parlay that 12 into multiple lower picks, one of which would be used on a Christian Ponder or a (ick) Ryan Mallett.

Or maybe they’ll stay put and take Prince Amukamara. Then all my hard work learning to spell “Amukamara” won’t go to waste.

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Today is now a good day thanks to Peter King. This morning in his Ten Things I Think I Think column, King connected the Vikings and Donovan McNabb in a way that is already sparking tons of conversation on Twitter and the like.

“I think the team that makes the most sense for Donovan McNabb is Minnesota,” King writes. “The compensation that makes the most sense is a conditional fourth-round pick in 2012 that could rise to a three if McNabb starts 12 games this year. Or something like that.”

Obviously we’re talking about next year’s draft picks, since it won’t be possible to trade players before this year’s draft, unless something miraculous happens in the next couple of weeks.

King continues, “The Vikings [if they make the trade] can sleep better at night knowing they don’t have to rely on Joe Webb with a suspect offensive line and a veteran defense as they try to make one last playoff run with this core. McNabb can be happy knowing he has one more chance to take a contender deep into the playoffs.”

And I can be happy knowing we won’t have to go into the season with Webb, somebody like Jake Locker or Ryan Mallett and behind these green prospects a late-acquired veteran cast-off like Derek Anderson or Jake Delhomme.

But wait, isn’t McNabb exactly the kind of creaky veteran QB everyone is sick of the Vikings settling for? Well yes, but here’s the difference: This time the Vikings would be admitting up-front that McNabb is only going to be around for a year, two at the most, with Webb and whoever they draft this year waiting in the wings to become the long-term answer.

This would not be like the Brett Favre situation, where Brad Childress reached for an old guy in his desperation, with no viable young QB on the roster as the heir apparent. In other words, this time the team would have a long-term and a short-term plan in place instead of only a short-term, keep-my-butt-from-getting-fired plan a la Chilly.

Any plan that doesn’t include the highly questionable notion of drafting a guy and making him the immediate starter is fine by me. If all the Vikings have to give up is a conditional fourth, I say make the McNabb thing happen. It would also be a good idea to convince Donovan to renegotiate his contract, which as it stands now will pay him $12 million for 2011, including a $10 million bonus.

Then again, compared to that $20 million the Vikings gave Favre last year, $12 million for one year of an old guy seems like a bargain.

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