Vikings Draft - Stage 3

Well we've reached rounds 4 and 3 now.

As a recap, through the rounds I've already addressed I have the Vikings picking a Defensive Lineman, Wide Receiver, Cornerback and Offensive Lineman. The team needs that I still think they could benefit from addressing through the earlier picks are Linebacker, Safety, Wide Receiver with new additions being Punter and Quarterback.

Before you start yelling at the computer or in your head let me explain a bit.

I like Teddy. I think he has enough ability to win the super bowl but I don't want the Purple to refuse to strengthen the position if it sees a guy worth taking at the pick that they have, possibly even up in the first round. But no spoilers, so don't automatically assume that's the direction I'm going to go when draft day comes around and I address round 1.

As far as punter goes, I didn't address it in the early rounds and I don't want to be drafted at all. Jeff Locke is not the answer for the position but it absolutely needs to be a position that is included in the rookie free agent class. To this point and after this I don't want to a list any particular player but there's a local angle that would fit the need - Ben Lecompte. He won't be drafted because he's a punter from NDSU but he was one of, if not the best punter in the country last year regardless of division. I want the best for the team so hopefully they bring in him or someone else to compete and beat out JL.

Now onto pick talk

Sioux don't suck

Yeah, Yeah I know they changed it to "Fighting Hawks" but that wasn't even the best of the options to remascot. To that end I'm still calling UND, the Fighting Sioux.

To get to the point, UND won the college hockey national championship tonight. I'm not a UND backer or much of a hockey fan but this is the biggest story of the day in the region. Undoubtedly they're still celebrating in Grand Forks and Tampa. Why the finals were in Tampa is a mystery to me but it probably comes down to $$$ and that's beside the point any way.

After a 15 year drought of championships in Hockey, it's good for those kids, the university and the state as a whole to be at the pinnacle of a second college sport this school year (the other being NDSU, in FCS football).

I'm not going to make like I saw the game, because I was busy all day and didn't see a minute of it. I heard most of the third period on the radio but hockey on the radio is not awesome. That is to say that this isn't about a particular play or player but just about the fact that they got over the hump and finally got another trophy.

Being a born and raised North Dakotan I'm always positive on good things happening in the Peace Garden State. I don't like the Sioux but winning a championship is a good thing so I'm happy for em and for us.

Not that they have for a long time in hockey but to a level not reached in a long time, the Sioux don't suck. As I said already, good for them!

I have a little more to say after the jump.

Breaking the cycle

I've heard the phrase "24 hour news cycle" at different times, about different circumstances but in today's internet world, with instant access to so many different news sources and facts I don't think it is a 24 hour cycle anymore. I think it's more apt to call it a breaking news cycle with the latest headline being all that matters.

Well I have to go back 2 full days for this but can't skip out on giving my 10 cents on a certain subject that I'm sure you've all heard about by now but may not have given much thought about.

Let me start from the beginning. Two nights ago the Minnesota Timberwolves played against the Golden State Warriors, out in California. Being a weeknight game, out on the West Coast and having to be up early for work, made it so that I couldn't stay up to see the game but I watched the first half and took a close look at the box score in the morning.

Early in the game, Minnesota got down as much as 17 points. By the end of the first half they closed the gap to nine points and by the end of the fourth were able to knot it up and force overtime. In OT they out scored the Warriors by 7 and pulled off the biggest win of the year.

I'm not going to over blow the significance of the win, but I also don't want to under rate it. So an attempt at sports related balance and more after the break.

Vikings Draft - Stage 2

So working on up from the bottom of the seventh round I think the Vikings would benefit from going defensive line and wide receiver. That would create competition at some important areas while allowing for the remainder of the draft to bring in guys to strengthen other areas of the team.

As mentioned before, I'm completely ignoring the likelihood of Spielman making trades with some of the picks.

The two picks I want to speculate about today are number 198, from the sixth round and 160, from the fifth round.

I'll get to it just across the divide.