The Minnesota Vikings opted to trade from the third-to-last pick in round one to the second overall pick in round two, but they’ll still be making a tough decision come Friday night.
According to Tom Pelissero of ESPN. com, Vikings V.P. of player personnel Rick Spielman said that the team is eyeballing a quartet of players with its reduced pick. And it means that, with only one selection in front of the Vikings on Friday, Minnesota will have at a minimum three guys from which to choose.
To make the move down four spots, the Vikings picked up the Lions’ fourth-round selection in a flip-flop of round four picks.
“The biggest thing out of the whole trade scenario was that you’re the second pick in [Friday’s] draft, which is huge,” Spielman said, per Pelissero. “And then you look at Saturday, and you’re going to have the second pick in Satuday’s draft. So, coming from the bottom of those rounds to coming up to the top of those rounds, especially when the day kicks off, we’re very excited about that, because the way our draft board is developed, we have a lot of options as we go into [Friday], and probably will have a lot going into Saturday as well.”
Of course, it could be that the Vikings simply hope that they’ll get another trade offer they like, like the one that prompted them to give up their first-round selection.
Spielman also said that the Vikings had tried to trade up in order to get one of the players picked before their selection. He didn’t disclose the name of the player they had targeted. Cornerbacks Devin McCourty or Kyle Wilson would be the two primary guesses.
Spielman also said that three other teams had called while the Vikings were on the clock, but Minnesota decided to do the deal with the Lions.
It’s unusual but not unprecedent for teams to trade within their same division. If we recall correctly, however, the Vikings in 1999 wanted to trade up from No. 11 to No. 9 in order to grab cornerback Chris McAlister from the Ravens, but the Lions declined to make the deal, citing that they don’t trade with their then-NFC Central rivals. So Detroit took linebacker Chris Claiborne and the Vikings picked Daunte Culpepper.
If Jahvid Best becomes a great player for the Lions, the Vikings may wish they had followed the Lions’ lead from eleven years ago.