6 Prospects the Minnesota Vikings Should Target in 2015 NFL Draft
The NLF draft moves away from New York this year and heads to Chicago, where things will kick off on Thursday, April 30.
We'll quote one of Minnesota's own as we try to figure out whom the Vikings may take in the first round: The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Offense? Defense? Trade up? Trade back? Who knows?
The Vikings have the 11th overall choice in this year's draft, but how they'll select is anybody's guess right now. So much of what Minnesota will do depends on how it moves forward in free agency and who from last year's roster is still on the team come draft day.
The biggest mystery of all for Minnesota is what will become of star running back Adrain Peterson. He's been suspended until April 15 by the NFL, but he'll have an appeal hearing in federal court on February 6, according to The Associated Press.
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer told Pro Football Talk Live (h/t Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk) that he'd like to have Peterson back, but that it has to be a "two-way street."
Peterson's future will surely have a mushroom effect on the Vikings' plans heading toward the draft. An offense with Peterson on board looks a whole lot different than one without him.
Even beyond Peterson, it's tough to gauge where Minnesota's draft priorities will fall.
It clearly has needs on the offensive line, wide receiver, linebacker and in the secondary. A first-round choice in any of those areas would surprise no one.
With that in mind, let's take a look at some players who should be on the Vikings' radar for the first two rounds of this year's draft.
Brandon Scherff, G/T, Iowa
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Taking an offensive lineman with your first-round choice is never very sexy, is it?
What is sexy, though, is winning.
The Dallas Cowboys were 8-8 for three seasons before 2014, and after losing defensive stalwarts DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher to free agency last spring, the popular opinion was that they would bottom out this season.
Instead they went 12-4, won in the first round of the playoffs and have a legitimate chance to advance to the NFC Championship Game. How did that happen, you might ask?
It's pretty simple: You typically don't bottom out when you have a great offensive line.
The Cowboys have used their first-round pick on offensive linemen in three of the last four drafts, and it's paid off in spectacular fashion. Dallas picked left tackle Tyron Smith with the ninth overall pick in 2011, center Travis Frederick with the 31st overall pick in 2013 and right guard Zack Martin with the 16th pick this year.
They're all Pro Bowl-caliber players and the secret sauce behind the amazing success that Tony Romo, DeMarco Murray and Dez Bryant all enjoyed this season.
The Vikings' offensive line was a mess in 2014. Center John Sullivan was his usual solid self, but the rest of the line was subpar.
Minnesota will be looking for a new starting left guard next season and will be returning two players on the right side who are returning from significant injuries as well as a left tackle who's trying to get his career back on track.
So, yes, in a nutshell, taking an offensive lineman in the first round would be smart.
The Vikings would be lucky to land Brandon Scherff, a 6'4", 320-pound tackle out of Iowa. Here's what ESPN draft expert Todd McShay has to say about Scherff (subscription required) in his first mock draft of the season:
"Scherff reminds me a lot of Zack Martin, the Cowboys' first-round pick at No. 16 overall in the 2014 draft, in that he could be a good starting right tackle in the NFL or a great starting guard. He possesses excellent strength and toughness, and is perfectly wired for life as an NFL offensive lineman.
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Anyone who brings Zack Martin to mind would be an outstanding pick for the Vikings. Scherff is better as a run-blocker right now than in pass protection, and most scouts see him shifting to guard in the NFL.
He brings a nasty attitude to the offensive line that NFL coaches love.
Cedric Ogbuehi, OT, Texas A&M
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Do the Vikings look to a different position if Scherff is off the board by the time they choose?
More than likely.
Outside of Scherff, any other offensive linemen might be considered a reach with the 11th pick, but that could change during the draft process.
Cedric Ogbuehi is a 6'5", 300-pound tackle with outstanding athleticism. He may not project as a guard like Scherff does, but the Vikings need outstanding offensive linemen and can figure out where to put them after the fact.
Ogbuehi gets very high grades as a pass-blocker and also plays with a nasty edge. He's lauded as a leader in the locker room and on the field. He's the type of player with a frame that looks like it will fill out more, and there's a premium for offensive linemen as athletic as he is.
Bucky Brooks of NFL.com writes that he sees a red flag in a late-season position change, as A&M moved him from left tackle back to right tackle. Either way, he's a player the Vikings will be studying over the next few months.
Other offensive linemen Minnesota will have its eyes on for early in the draft include Andrus Peat of Stanford, La'el Collins of LSU and Ereck Flowers of the University of Miami.
DeVante Parker, WR, Louisville
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At 6'2", 210 pounds, Louisville wide receiver DeVante Parker has a chance to be another early-impact player in the NFL.
The 2014 crop of rookie wide receivers might go down as the best ever, and if that class proved anything, it's that there doesn't have to be a huge learning curve to have early success at the wideout position.
Parker is getting some A.J. Green comparisons, including from ESPN's Mel Kiper (h/t 247Sports), who had this to say about Parker via Louisville.247sports.com:
"We've seen about a dozen young receivers come into the NFL and take it by storm, which is something you don't usually see happen, DeVante Parker could be the same type of player, coming in as a rookie and putting up big numbers. He's long. He's athletic. He has come back from that injury and put up monster numbers.
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Parker is big and strong and has a great ability to get open, something the Vikings need more of from their receiving corps. He's also a very good runner after the catch.
It doesn't hurt at all that Parker was teammates with Teddy Bridgewater in college and has a great rapport with him.
We'll assume Amani Cooper will be off the board by the time the Vikings pick, but other receivers who could be early options for Minnesota include Kevin White, Jaelen Strong and Dorial Green-Beckham.
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Landon Collins, S, Alabama
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As much as the Vikings need help on offense, Mike Zimmer is a defense-first guy and it's pretty tempting to imagine what a back end would look like with Harrison Smith paired with Alabama All-American safety Landon Collins.
Very, very tempting.
At 6'0", 215 pounds Collins is every bit the tackler that Robert Blanton is, but he has great instincts against the pass as well. Adding a great athlete like Collins to the Minnesota secondary would be similar to the boost the linebacker corps got last year with Anthony Barr.
To nobody's surprise, Collins announced he would enter the NFL draft on Thursday, according to Alex Scarborough of ESPN.com.
Collins may be off the board by the time the Vikings select at No. 11, but he'd be pretty enticing if he were still there.
Other secondary candidates Minnesota will keep tabs on are cornerbacks Trae Waynes of Michigan State, Kevin Johnson of Wake Forest and Marcus Peters of Washington.
Danny Shelton, DT, Washington
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As improved as Minnesota's defense was in 2014, it was still way too soft against the run, ranking 25th in the league.
Linval Joseph wasn't exactly a bust, but he wasn't quite the presence the Vikings hoped he'd be when they signed him last offseason. Sharrif Floyd made good strides in his second season but isn't yet a dominant player.
The biggest problem the Vikings have up front, and ostensibly against the run, is that they are on the small side. That may sound a bit silly with Joseph coming in at 320 pounds and Floyd around 295, but it's true.
Defensive ends Everson Griffen (6'3", 273 lbs) and Brian Robison (6'3", 259 lbs) are both on the small side.
Nobody will ever call Washington defensive tackle Danny Shelton small. The 6'1", 332-pound Shelton is another in the new breed of massive interior linemen who can move, are athletic and a nightmare for offensive linemen.
Chase Goodbread of NFL.com quoted one NFL scout as saying the following about Shelton, whose stock has shot up this season:
"He's a massive dude. And he's not just a square, can't-move dude. He can run and he's physical and he can move. It's mind-blowing how easy it looks for him. He was just toying with people at times. ... He went from, "Oh, we should probably take a look at this guy" in the summer to a first-round lock now.
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A player like Shelton would certainly give the Vikings a more intimidating look on defense.
Shaq Thompson, LB, Washington
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In Anthony Barr, the Vikings probably got the best athlete on the defensive side of the ball in last year's draft.
Why not do it two years in a row?
At 6'2", 224 pounds, Thompson is clearly on the small side for a linebacker, but he's a firecracker of an athlete who played both linebacker and running back at Washington and spent some time in the minor leagues with the Boston Red Sox.
While Barr is on the extra-large size for an outside linebacker, Thompson is on the small side, but the two of them together could make for the best duo in the NFL.
Bucky Brooks of NFL.com writes that Thompson's versatility has NFL scouts in love with him.
Thompson is quite simply a gifted football player and will be a difference-maker in the NFL. Paired with Barr, the Vikings would have two linebackers who could line up all over the field and be hell on wheels both blitzing and against the pass.
Other linebackers the Vikings will look at include true middle linebackers Benardrick McKinney out of Mississippi State, Reggie Ragland from Alabama and Denzel Perryman from Miami.
In order to get any of those three, Minnesota would probably have to move up a little higher in the second round or back into the first, as it's done the last three years.
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