With the draft nine days away and the Vikings hopeful that after the draft comes and goes the chatter about a trade of Adrian Peterson will die down, the best strategy for Peterson’s camp could be to agitate in the hopes that the Vikings will decide that they’ve had enough.
Coincidentally (or not), Peterson’s agent has recently done some agitating on his Facebook page.
Most recently, Dogra posted a photo of himself sitting in a chair draped with a Peterson jersey. Dogra is wearing a Buccaneers hat with the message, “Game on!”
Last Tuesday, Dogra added this quote over a photo of G.M. Rick Spielman on the phone: “I might need a weapon for my franchise QB . . . . maybe a WR . . . maybe from Louisville. I just hope they can turn the pick in while they are on the clock. It’s happened in the past . . . multiple times. . . .”
Dogra is referring to 2002 and 2003, when the Vikings were involved in clock mishaps in the top 10. In 2003, the Vikings were trying to trade down from No. 7 with the Ravens, who would have moved up from No. 10 to get quarterback Byron Leftwich. The 15 minutes ran out, the Jaguars took Leftwich, the Panthers took tackle Jordan Gross, and the Vikings finally submitted a card, taking defensive tackle Kevin Williams with the ninth pick.
While many think the Vikings likewise allowed time to run out in 2002, the truth is that the Cowboys with the sixth pick were trying to trade down two spots with the Chiefs, who hoped to select defensive tackle Ryan Sims before the Vikings could get him at No. 7. Time ran out for the Cowboys, but the trade was accomplished before the Vikings could submit the card that would have given them Sims. Minnesota settled for tackle Bryant McKinnie.
The silver lining is that both players ended up becoming cornerstones of the offensive and defensive lines for the rest of the decade, even though McKinnie held out into the regular season. One of his agents was, yes, Ben Dogra.
With Peterson, there may be a silver lining. For now, it’s buried deep inside a storm cloud.