Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Everyone knew that the Minnesota Vikings had two first-round draft picks coming into the 2013 NFL Draft: their own 23rd pick and the acquired the 25th pick after the Percy Harvin deal with the Seattle Seahawks.
What nobody predicted was that they would actually have three after trading a second, third, fourth and seventh-round pick to the New England Patriots for the 29th overall selection on Thursday night.
Sharrif Floyd was predicted by more than a fair share of “experts” to go third overall to the Oakland Raiders. He didn’t, and slid all the way down to the Vikings. Floyd gives the Vikings a versatile defensive lineman who may eventually replace the production of Kevin Williams one day in the next year or two. For now, he’s going to help Williams improve the Vikings’ defensive line along with Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Allen.
With the pick received from Seattle, the Vikings added cornerback Xavier Rhodes for the back end of their defense. Rhodes is a big and strong corner who has all of the physical skills to be quite successful in the league.
The additions of Floyd and Rhodes definitely improve the defense, but one of the biggest questions of the team still remained with respect to wide receiver. However, the Vikings traded back into the first round to secure the rights to Cordarrelle Patterson.
Patterson is a guy, like Harvin, who has excessive talent, but there are questions about his attitude and off-the-field antics. Nevertheless, the talent of Patterson was too tempting to pass up and if any team in the league can handle a malcontent receiver, it would be Leslie Frazier and the Vikings after having dealt with Harvin and his personality in previous seasons.
