The Record

Vikings draft is an epic fail

By: Michael Murakami

First of all with this being the last issue, I want to thank all of you who read my articles throughout the year.

I really need to start sending my articles to the teams and people I write about because clearly the Minnesota Vikings organization needs some help.

The Vikings royally screwed up in the 2010 NFL Draft. To quote John Tuvey, an SJU alumnus and senior NFL analyst, “the Vikings’ draft was like having $20 and needing shoes and going to the store and seeing a sweet T-shirt and buying that instead; you still need shoes, and now you have no money.”

In my opinion, the Vikings needed to take care of two things in the draft: quarterback and secondary defense. In that order.

As of right now, the Vikings have no quarterback for next year. There is no guarantee that Brett Favre – the Purple Savior – will be back next season, and there is no guarantee he will achieve the same level of success.

You cannot rely on Sage Rosenfels who did not play a snap during the regular season for the Vikings last year or Tarvaris Jackson who the Vikings oddly decided to resign.

Even if Favre comes back, the Vikings had the opportunity to take either Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame or Colt McCoy from Texas to fill the 40-year-old’s role once he retires. I would have taken either of them. Instead, we chose Chris Cook, a cornerback/safety from the University of Virginia with our first pick.

His numbers? One forced fumble, seven interceptions, 143 tackles. In his career.  Yikes.

If the Vikings were going to pick a secondary player that high, I am surprised they went with Cook instead of Nate Allen from South Florida or Taylor Mays from USC – both with better numbers than Cook.

Then there’s Toby Gerhart, the stud running back from Stanford. Why the Vikings would waste a draft pick on a running back when they have arguably the best running back in the NFL in Adrian Peterson is beyond me.

Yes, I know we needed to fill in Chestor Taylor’s absence but we could have done this in later rounds or in free agent Brian Westbrook.

The Gerhart pick might be the only one I am okay with and that is saying a lot. Gerhart will replace Taylor as the third down back and he is a work-horse. Look out A.P. fans, Gerhart may get some of those touchdowns A.P. can’t get.

Overall, the Vikings have not gotten stellar grades from football analysts and they’re not getting one from me either. Taking UAB quarterback Joe Webb instead of Clausen or McCoy when they had the chance or even signing undrafted Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead is ridiculous. Cook and Griffen are complete shots in the dark. I give the Vikings draft a “D”.

But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe.

This is the opinion of Michael Murakami, an SJU Senior.

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