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The Vikings are coming off of a pretty successful year, making the playoffs with a regular season record of 10-6 and a loss to Green Bay (who they beat Week 17) in the wild card round. Their free agency success is debatable as they lost Percy Harvin, Antoine Winfield, and Jasper Brinkley, but gained a 1st, a 7th, and a mid-round pick in next year's draft. Their biggest signing was Greg Jennings to a 5-year $47.5 million deal.
Needs: After taking a WR with the last picks the most important needs are ILB, CB, and DT. I was very tempted to take Xavier Rhodes with the last pick but his off-the-field issues were a concern to me and there have been some scouts with reports that aren't very high on him and some would argue he shouldn't go in the 1st. This is okay because the Vikings have several picks later in the draft that could be used to address CB and I think that's what they're gonna do. I was thinking pretty hard on taking a DT but as the board fell all the DTs such as Sylvester Williams and Sheldon Richardson were already taken. The good part of that is there is a lot of depth at DT and could easily be addressed in rounds 2-3 with the likes of Jonathan Jenkins. That leaves me with ILB and the pick was very easy for me.
Arthur Brown, LB, Kansas State
This guy has an instinct for the ball and the speed to get there. He can stretch the field with his speed and even when he doesn't get a full hit on somebody, he finds a way to make the tackle. He isn't exactly a thumper and playing ILB in the NFL but he plays to his strengths and has the intelligence to position himself to make the tackle. He plays downhill and almost never goes to the wrong gap. One of his strengths is the ability to get off blocks and that doesn't just include in the run game, he's a good blitzer and always manages to get pressure on the QB. He isn't a liability in pass coverage, in fact he's probably a little above average but I wouldn't say it's one his strengths. Anyways, here's a highlight video so you can see what I mean.
I was never really a fan of Ogletree and off-the-field issues are a big negative to me, so when Ogletree was taken, making this pick was a little easier. The Vikings are getting a quality player and he will make their defense a lot better.
AP draft order:
1. Kansas City (R2J_24) - Luke Joeckel, Texas A&M, LT
2. Jacksonville - GenericBrand - Geno Smith, West Virginia, QB
3. Oakland - mushin - Sharrif Floyd, Florida, DT
4. Philadelphia - ex-qb13 - Dee Milliner, Alabama, CB
5. Detroit - Ben Martin - Eric Fisher, Central Michigan, OT
6. Cleveland - The Dank Dank - Dion Jordan, Oregon, DE/LB
7. Arizona - SillyHatDay - Matt Barkley, USC, QB
8. Buffalo - ArrowDread - Keenan Allen, Cal, WR
9. New York Jets - MtHammer - Chance Warmack, Alabama, G
10. Tennessee - ejr58 - Jonathan Cooper, North Carolina, G
11. San Diego - Chief TigerGator - Star Lotulelei, Utah, DT
12. Miami - cmac87 - Lane Johnson, Oklahoma, OT
13. Tampa Bay - NigerianNightmare - Sheldon Richardson, Missouri, DT
14. Carolina - citadelchief - Kenny Vaccaro, Texas, S
15. New Orleans - craig in calgary - Barkevious Mingo, LSU, DE
16. St. Louis - KVin2 - Tavon Austin, West Virginia, WR
17. Pittsburgh -ChiefMojo - Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah, BYU, DE/LB
18. Dallas - iamthegreatest - Bjoern Werner, Florida State, DE
19. New York Giants - Topchief1 - Jarvis Jones, Georgia, LB
20. Chicago - Everest - Alec Ogletree, Georgia, LB
21. Cincinnati - Akr_Baby - Desmond Trufant, Washington, CB
22. St. Louis from Washington - KVin2 - Sylvester Williams, UNC, DT
23. Minnesota - YoungAnalyst - Cordarrelle Patterson, Tennessee, WR
24. Indianapolis - saskwatch - Xavier Rhodes, Florida State, CB
25. Minnesota from Seattle - YoungAnalyst - Arthur Brown, Kansas State, LB
26. Green Bay - nateforchiefs
27. Houston - RhodyChief
28. Denver - ravenhawk
29. New England - BeeRadd
30. Atlanta - bradelli58
31. San Francisco - How to: Sabotage
32. Baltimore - Ben S