The Minnesota Vikings and the NFL Draft: An Endless Disappointment

My favorite NFL franchise, the Minnesota Vikings, love to make the diehards suffer during the NFL draft. 

Since 1995, they have passed up on a lot of great talent. 

Imagine the Vikings' defense with stars such as Ty Law, Ray Lewis, Dwight Freeney, or Lofa Tatupu. 

Those are just a few players they have not selected on draft day.

 Let's go back to 1995. The Vikings drafted defensive end Derrick Alexander who didn't pan out. Ty Law was picked later that draft. So was a man by the name of Warren Sapp.

Let's move on to 1996.

This was one of the many screw-ups the Vikes have had. Duane Clemons was the man they went with. Three pretty good receivers were selected later:  Marvin Harrison, Eric Moulds, and Muhsin Muhammed. 

A linebacker from the University of Miami (FL) by the name of Ray Lewis was also taken after Mr. Clemons. A bruising fullback from Purdue named Mike Alstott was also available. Lawyer Milloy is the last man on this list of missed opportunities. 

The next two years they actually did well. Dwayne Rudd and Randy Moss were the two players they selected.  

Then we have the 1999 draft. 

They decided to draft Daunte Culpepper with the 11th overall pick. Daunte was solid for a couple years but they weren't even in need of a quarterback at the time. They passed on Jevon Kearse (later known as "The Freak") who became a driving force on the Titans defense—leading them to the Super Bowl. 

They had two first round picks that year. The second one was used on Demetrius Underwood. I don't even want to get into that story right now. After Demetrius Underwood was selected, so were Patrick Kearney, Al Wilson, Mike Peterson, Jon Jansen, Mike Rucker, and Dre Bly. 

2000 was the year everyone missed out on Tom Brady, six times. I can't hold that against Minnesota because every other team but New England missed him. The Vikings went with Chris Hovan, who was good for a couple years but eventually fizzled out and went to Tampa Bay. They could have drafted Keith Bullock to beef up the weak linebacking core the Vikes have suffered from for years.

The 2001 season saw the Vikings taking a track star from the University of Wisconsin by the name of Michael Bennett. Two Pro Bowl receivers by the names of Reggie Wayne and Chad Johnson were later taken. Defensive tackle Chris Jenkins was taken shortly after. Quarterback Drew Brees was taken early in the second round. The Baltimore Ravens picked up tight end Todd Heap late in the first round.

Bryant McKinnie was selected the next year for the Vikings—which was a smart pick to help out their offensive line. However, they also had a chance to take Dwight Freeney, Ed Reed, Roy Williams, or Jeremy Shockey. In the second round of this draft, they chose Raonall Smith. Shortly after that, another Miami Hurricanes alum,Clinton Portis, was selected.

They did well in 2003—Kevin Williams is an animal.

However, this pick was quite the no-brainer for them. It could've been fun to watch Larry Johnson or Willis McGahee running in the Vikings system. Troy Palamalu and Nick Barnett are two other defensive stars that were available. I am happy with the Williams selection, however.

Kenechi Udeze was selected with the 20th overall pick the next year. Stephen Jackson and Julius Jones were later selected.

2005 is possibly the worst year the Vikings have had in the draft. 

For starters, they traded Randy Moss to the Oakland Raiders. Now, if you're going to trade Randy Moss you should get quite a package deal for him, right? 

The Raiders offered their first round pick (number 7 overall) and linebacker Napoleon Harris. For whatever reason, the Vikings thought this was the right deal for them. So when the Vikings were on the clock that day they were looking to replace Randy Moss with a young, talented receiver.

Well they got the young part right. 

They draft Troy Williamson from South Carolina. Williamson had good speed and looked to be a possible deep threat for the Vikings. Well, he was a deep threat to get open; the part where he catches the ball seems to get away from him. 

Later in the first round, Shawne Merriman and Antrelle Rolle were selected. In the second round, the Seahawks took Lofa Tatupu and the 49ers nabbed Frank Gore in the third round.   

In 2006, Chad Greenway was the player they went with. Now Greenway is still young and had a good year this season. However Manny Lawson, Greg Jennings, Maurice Jones-Drew, and Devin Hester were picked after him.

This past year was the best draft pick the Vikings have had since they took Moss in 1998. Adrian Peterson out of Oklahoma was an MVP candidate for much of the year until he missed a few games due to an injury. 

I almost forgot to mention the years when the Vikings decided to let the clock run all the way out and let teams move ahead of them because they weren't prepared. 

Seriously, you have all the time in the world to scout and make charts of the players you want. How hard can it be to get the pick in on time?

So now with the NFL Draft just three months away, one might wonder what future Pro Bowlers, MVP's, or Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks they will pass on. 

Oh Minnesota, please don't put us through this anymore.