Brady Quinn no, Adrian Peterson yes – Were the Vikings caught stealing?

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Adrian Peterson – coming to an end zone near you!

Sometimes things just seem to go your way.

For Rick Spielman of the Vikings, it was one of those days.

Not only did Draft Day One go well in the First round, but also in the Second round.

Now you might ask why didn’t Minnesota draft Brady Quinn? After all, can you name Minnesota’s quarterback? No you can’t. It is not Brad Johnson.

No, the Vikings released him and Brad signed a 3 year deal with the Cowboys.

Wait, the quarterback is .. is.. Tavarious, Yeah, Tavarious Johnson or something.

Close. His name is Tarvaris Jackson and he is backed up by Brooks Bollinger. The Vikes really like Tarvaris. He throws a very tight spiral. The Vikings think Jackson is something special.

And they didn’t take Brady Quinn?

It is not that the Vikings did not like Brady. It is more like that had Adrian Peterson higher on their draft board. As Spielman explains it:

“Adrian Peterson was the third highest-rated player on our board, and he was just too good to pass up. You cannot have enough running backs. Plus, I know how important it is for us to run the ball, the type of offense we have and what coach (Brad) Childress wants.” source

Isn’t Adrian, like, always injured or something?

The question with Peterson, of course, is a collarbone he broke during the season and re-injured in the Fiesta Bowl. There was speculation that Peterson might require another surgery, but Peterson last week dismissed the idea.

The Vikings doctors agreed and he will be ready for weekend mini-camp.

You said something about the second round, too.

The Vikings had targeted Sidney Rice of South Carolina, a former Lou Holtz recruit.

NFL Football Sidney Rice factoid Rice was a great high school athlete.

In 2003, Rice caught 57 passes for 897 yards and seven touchdowns as a senior. He had 38 catches for 735 yards and 11 touchdowns his junior campaign. He also excelled in basketball, earning 2002-03 Class 4A basketball Player of the Year after helping lead Gaffney to the state championship. That season, he averaged 18 points and seven rebounds per game as the Indians finished the basketball season 28-0. source

Minnesota scoring average per game only exceeded 6 other teams in the NFL. Adrian Peterson may help, but they wanted a receiver that could go up in the air and grab the ball to help with scoring in the red zone.

“We felt very strongly about Sidney Rice,” he said. “He’s a big receiver, and he had a 38½-inch vertical jump. When you have a guy with that size and that vertical jump it means he has unique skills to go up and get the ball, especially in the red zone.
source

So there you have it, a very good day for Rick Spielman. Rick may have gotten the steal of the draft!

NFL Football Fan Question Would you have taken Adrian Peterson? (We know you would have, RonB)

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