Draft Dunces
The Minnesota Vikings have been roundly criticized for missing their turn in the first round of last weekend’s NFL draft. Nearly every story I have read has made mention of the fact that the Vikings screwed up their first round pick last year. I have only one problem with this: it isn’t true. Writers I normally agree with (or at least respect), such as Gregg Easterbrook (of “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” fame), Len Pasquerelli, and Don Banks, have jumped on the Vikings for making draft day mistakes two years in a row.
Here’s a little background: in the 2002 NFL Draft, it was the Cowboys, not the Vikings, who ran out of time. The Vikings were slated to pick next and nearly fell over themselves attempting to claim Ryan Sims. It was then announced that Dallas and Kansas City had worked out a deal–supposedly before the time had run out–and Sims went to the Chiefs, instead.
This year, the Vikings were in the Cowboys’ shoes. They attempted to make a trade, had one approved just before time ran out, but weren’t able to get it announced before the next team was on the clock. This time, the next team (and the team after that) were allowed to make–and keep–their picks. The Vikings ended up with the player they wanted anyway (Kevin Williams), but are now the laughingstock of the league–even more so.
The Vikes got screwed from each end of similar situations in successive years, and the short memories of football pundits led them to talk about Minnesota’s “history” of screwing up the actual process of making picks. It took me less than a minute to find this article and this article, both of which explain that last year’s problems were Dallas’ fault, and yet it seems that none of the “experts” can be forced to take that much time to do some basic research. You wanna talk about screwed up Viking drafts? Talk about Dimitrius “God told me to quit football–no–kill myself–twice” Underwood.