Article: The Wild Pioneered the New Age Of Drafting For Need This Year

[mnfaninnc]

20 hours ago, Quebec1648 said:

Just look at what happened to the Arizona Cardinals in football. They drafted Josh Rosen at QB one year, and then the very next year drafted Kyler Murray (best player available) who also played QB. They didn't have room or need for both, so Rosen was shown the door. They spent a 1st round pick on Rosen and wasted a year developing him, then traded him for a 2nd rounder. Murray ended up being the better choice, but the Cardinals lost time and value in the process. 

A much better option, is to draft what you're good at, and avoid the ones you're not good at. The Vikings for example, are good at drafting and developing RB, but terrible at QB. Therefore, you avoid QB on draft day, and focus on RB. You draft multiple RB, develope them and then trade one or more of them for a QB. The Vikings could become a RB development organization. By having such a reputation, they could gain Value, by potentially trading a RB for higher level talent or picks, like turning a 3rd round RB into a future 2nd round pick.

Isn't it odd that the Vikings picked up Rosen for free late last season? I think the Cards quickly assessed that they had made a draft mistake the previous year, because they could have had both QBs fight it out in camp. 2 guys on rookie deals at the most lucrative position in the game? Are you kidding me, that could have freed up a whole lot of cap to surround the QBs with a lot of talent.

The old regime was good at developing RBs. I think with the new staff, we will be better at developing the QBs going forward. O'Connell seems like a guy who doesn't really value the RB position, and that guy has to have good hands. He also seems like a coach who doesn't mind developing QBs, especially ones that have been around a couple of years and you get dirt cheap. I wonder what he could do with Wentz?

But, since we've never really had a long list of centers, we really don't know how good the Wild are at developing them. Duhaime, Dewar and Shaw all came in listed at C, but only Dewar is still playing it. Could the other guys convert over? Maybe. I wouldn't mind seeing a Magoon-Duhaime-Foligno line to start a game and get things going! If I'm Evason, I'm declaring a 5 hit minimum for that 1st shift, especially against teams on the back end of b2bs or 3/4.