Minnesota Vikings: 5 First-Round Scenarios for the 2012 Draft

With the 2012 NFL draft just over two weeks away, experts on websites everywhere are looking into their crystal balls and trying to make their best guesses as to what teams will take what players, who's looking to wheel and deal, and what players stock might be rising and falling.

All the guessing and speculating is fun, but nobody knows for sure what will happen when the teams start drafting for real on Thursday night, April 26.

As the draftniks, bloggers and experts have refined all the information that's come at them fast and furiously over the last two months, final mock drafts will be flying around the web faster than anyone will be able to keep up with.

When it comes to the Minnesota Vikings, one thing most experts agree on is that they need a lot of help. Although it certainly doesn't take an expert to say that about a team coming off a 3-13 season, it's also well agreed that the Vikings biggest areas of need are on the offensive line, at wide receiver and at defensive back.

With that in mind, we take a look at five of the most likely scenarios that will unfold for the purple in the first round two weeks from Thursday.

With the Third Pick, the Vikings Select Matt Kalil

The most obvious and probable scenario for the Vikings will be to keep the No. 3 pick and select offensive tackle Matt Kalil out of Southern Cal.

At 6'7", 306 pounds with a long arms and a ton of athleticism, Kalil is the best left tackle prospect to hit the draft in several years. He has everything you look for at the cornerstone position of any offensive line, and it's a spot the Vikings are desperate for an upgrade at. 

The Vikings have pinned their short-term future on second-year quarterback Christian Ponder, and they need to put players around him that can help him succeed. What better piece for a team looking to help out their quarterback than a franchise-type left tackle?

GM Rick Spielman has been saying all the typical GM tropes in the lead up to the draft, no team wants to show their hand before draft day. Teams have won without elite left tackles many times before; if you give a great quarterback some great options at receiver, they can win with adequate line play.

Spielman may be angling to move down in order to get another pick or two. He may be thinking of upgrading the secondary with an elite, shutdown corner, or he may want to give Ponder a true No. 1 receiver on the outside, as an elite wideout certainly makes a quarterback better.

Having said all that, the safe and smart move for the Vikings is to just draft Kalil and plug him in at left tackle for the next decade or so. Ponder faced far too many jailbreak pass-rushes last season, at times it almost impossible to evaluate him as he was on the run the moment after taking the snap.

A stud left tackle isn't going to fix everything obviously, but it's the smartest move for a team that needs to make a bunch of them.

With the Third Pick, the Vikings Select Morris Claiborne

LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne was all over the Internet last week when it was leaked that he scored a four on the Wonderlic test at the NFL combine. 

Every expert weighed in on what that might mean for Claiborne's draft stock and the overwhelming consensus was that it would have little to no impact. NFL teams aren't drafting brain surgeons or rocket scientists; they're selecting football players and there are very few better than Claiborne in this year's draft. 

Claiborne absolutely jumps out in film as a lockdown corner with supreme athletic ability and a very high football IQ. He plays very instinctively and is outstanding against both the pass and the run. 

At 5'11", 190 pounds, Claiborne would instantly be one of the best corners to ever wear a Vikings uniform. For a team that faces Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford six times every year, a huge upgrade is needed in what was perhaps the worst secondary in the league last year.

For the Vikings, taking Claiborne over Kalil or Blackmon would indicate where this front office is convinced football games are won in today's NFL. Both Claiborne and Kalil grade out about as high as you can at their respective positions, and both seem to be absolutely can't miss prospects. The question becomes, which position has more impact on a football team?

With the Third Pick, the Vikings Select Justin Blackmon

Anyone who watched a Vikings game last season, or an Oklahoma State game, understands that the Vikings and Blackmon would be a perfect fit.

If the Vikings are convinced that Christian Ponder needs a No. 1 wideout more than anything else to help him progress as an NFL quarterback, they might think about grabbing Blackmon and putting him on the outside, giving Ponder two dynamic threats at wideout with Percy Harvin, as well as two tight ends with huge upside.

At 6'1", 207 pounds and without blazing speed, Blackmon doesn't quite measure up as a superstar receiver. At least not until you put tape in and see Blackmon completely dominating people in college. But that's always the big guess at the next level: Blackmon won't be running routes against college kids and college defenses; he'll be doing them against the best competition in the world.

The risk on Blackmon, or any receiver for that matter, is that it's much harder to project success at the next level at that position compared to offensive line or cornerback. 

It would be surprising if the Vikings stayed with the third pick and took Blackmon, but it certainly wouldn't be devastating. Blackmon has great hands, runs great routes and plays with an intensity and a passion that isn't teachable. 

The Vikings Trade the Third Pick to the Cleveland Browns

No team can be enjoying watching the rising stock of Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill than the Minnesota Vikings.

In a league where having a stud quarterback is almost mandatory for any kind of success, Tannehill has become perhaps the third stud in this quarterback class, joining Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. The Vikings would love to auction off the third pick, much like the Rams did a month ago when they got a king's ransom for the rights to draft RGIII with the second pick. 

The ideal trade partner for the Vikings would be the Cleveland Browns. The Browns are definitely in the market for a quarterback, and if they are in love with Tannehill and get scared that Miami or Kansas City might try to deal with the Vikings to move up to take him, they could easily be encourage to swap picks and throw in another pick as well.

There's no way the Vikings would get as much as the Rams got for the No. 2 pick, but if they deal with Cleveland, they could still get the player they covet and another pick to boot.

It's probably a long-shot that teams covet Tannehill enough trade picks to get him, but the Vikings have to bait the hook and see what might come back. 

The Vikings Trade the Third Pick to the Miami Dolphins

This is the draft scenario that has most Vikings fans quaking in their boots. 

GM Rick Spielman has made it known that he's not averse to trading down in the draft if he can get enough picks in return to make it worth his while. Most Vikings fans do not think it's worth the while.

While it may be true that a team with as many holes to fill as the Vikings would do well to get another second or perhaps even a first next year as well as a third, the thought among purple faithful is to land one of the prized picks now, while we have the chance. Don't trade down as far as No. 8 and think that you're going to land a sure thing with somebody like Riley Reiff, the tackle out of Iowa.

There's too much risk for the Vikings to bank on hitting on two picks that aren't sure things. The thought here is that Spielman and Leslie Frazier will be too afraid for their jobs to pull a move like that, and they won't trade out of the top four.

But that's what makes the draft so exciting. Will the Vikings take the sure thing at left tackle? Will they take the lockdown corner to shore up the defense? Will they trade out of the third spot?

The guess here is that the Vikings add Matt Kalil in the first round, and then try to shore up the receivers and secondary in the following rounds.