Vikings target corners, pre-draft visits set up

**skum** · 03-24-2012, 10:52 PM

Vikings target corners for 2012 NFL Draft | Minnesota Sportscast

"It is no secret that Minnesota is looking to upgrade their secondary, but the significance of the names mentioned is minimal. The Vikings likely scheduled visits with more defensive backs, and will visit with many more leading up to the draft."

We have arranged pre-draft visits with

Dre Kirkpatrick, Alabama - projected 1st rounder
Trumaine Johnson, Montana - projected 2nd rounder
Casey Hayward, Vanderbilt - projected 3rd rounder

All these guys should do well in a zone-based defense and have nice size as well..

Personally i like Josh Robinson from UCF, hope we can get him in the 2nd..

**Purple Floyd** · 03-25-2012, 08:23 AM

So you mean they are all good at sitting 15 yards off the line and letting every pass attempt get completed ahead of them in the cushion and then hopefully tackling them before they get past the Safeties?

Boy, I am so excited about the possibilities lol.

**singersp** · 03-25-2012, 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by Purple Floyd

So you mean they are all good at sitting 15 yards off the line and letting every pass attempt get completed ahead of them in the cushion and then hopefully tackling them before they get past the Safeties?

Boy, I am so excited about the possibilities lol.

+1

**i_bleed_purple** · 03-25-2012, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by Purple Floyd

So you mean they are all good at sitting 15 yards off the line and letting every pass attempt get completed ahead of them in the cushion and then hopefully tackling them before they get past the Safeties?

Boy, I am so excited about the possibilities lol.

Are you describing the Marty-2?

**mountainviking** · 03-27-2012, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by skum

Vikings target corners for 2012 NFL Draft | Minnesota Sportscast

"It is no secret that Minnesota is looking to upgrade their secondary, but the significance of the names mentioned is minimal. The Vikings likely scheduled visits with more defensive backs, and will visit with many more leading up to the draft."

We have arranged pre-draft visits with

Dre Kirkpatrick, Alabama - projected 1st rounder
Trumaine Johnson, Montana - projected 2nd rounder
Casey Hayward, Vanderbilt - projected 3rd rounder

All these guys should do well in a zone-based defense and have nice size as well..

Personally i like Josh Robinson from UCF, hope we can get him in the 2nd..

None of those guys are top ten picks...I'm betting we go CB later, despite Spielman's smoke screens.

**CPonderFan** · 03-27-2012, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Purple Floyd

So you mean they are all good at sitting 15 yards off the line and letting every pass attempt get completed ahead of them in the cushion and then hopefully tackling them before they get past the Safeties?

Boy, I am so excited about the possibilities lol.

Just curious..Do you think thats how all zone defenses work?

**i_bleed_purple** · 03-27-2012, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by CPonderFan

Just curious..Do you think thats how all zone defenses work?

That's how ours seems to work.

**Purple Floyd** · 03-27-2012, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by CPonderFan

Just curious..Do you think thats how all zone defenses work?

Nope. just ours.

Care to offer a rebuttal?

**CPonderFan** · 03-28-2012, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by Purple Floyd

Nope. just ours.

Care to offer a rebuttal?

Sure...

Why are we focusing on the CB in a zone defense? Zone is a whole lot easier for a CB to play than man. The main focus in zone coverage is the movement of the SFs. Thats why in my opinion we will try and get SF Barron at the top of the 2nd round. If we get him our defense will instantly jump up a notch. CBs Cook, Bowman, Winfield, Burton, Sherrels is plenty good enough to get the job done for now. In a Cover 2 defense you have to be able to get pressure on the QB with your front 4. Allen obviously is doing his part, we are missing a Bookend. I personally would love to see Everson and Robison split more time this season.

I agree we looked incredibly attrocious for the last 5+ years. But ever since Sharper left we havent had a good SF playing behind to help our CBs.

**Purple Floyd** · 03-28-2012, 11:01 PM

Originally Posted by CPonderFan

Sure...

Why are we focusing on the CB in a zone defense? Zone is a whole lot easier for a CB to play than man. The main focus in zone coverage is the movement of the SFs. Thats why in my opinion we will try and get SF Barron at the top of the 2nd round. If we get him our defense will instantly jump up a notch. CBs Cook, Bowman, Winfield, Burton, Sherrels is plenty good enough to get the job done for now. In a Cover 2 defense you have to be able to get pressure on the QB with your front 4. Allen obviously is doing his part, we are missing a Bookend. I personally would love to see Everson and Robison split more time this season.

I agree we looked incredibly attrocious for the last 5+ years. But ever since Sharper left we havent had a good SF playing behind to help our CBs.

Good post. Can't say that I disagree with the post much at all. I will say, however, that I believe teams that run a zone defense do so mostly because they don't have the CB's to run man. I do feel if we upgraded the CB skill set and got a guy that can be a high quality man defender that we would run more man coverage and less zone.

With that said even though my personal preference if we do stay at 3 is Claiborne, my real preference is to trade down and get more picks to build the roster because we have so damn many holes to fill. I also would argue that the MLB is even more important that the safety position in the C2 and seeing that we have not done a thing to address that I am very nervous. Hopefully Brinkley can step up.