By Sam Ekstrom
The Vikings were pleased with the rookie harvest in 2014. They got contributions from No. 9 overall pick Anthony Barr beginning in Week 1. The No. 32 pick, Teddy Bridgewater, went 6-6 as a starting quarterback. Jerick McKinnon, a third round selection, got 140 touches and close to 700 yards from scrimmage as a runner and pass catcher. And finally, Shamar Stephen served as a rotational player at the defensive tackle position and made 23 tackles.
This year, however, the Vikings are hoping to see an even more lucrative bounty from their 10-man class, with several rookies shaping up to make Week 1 impacts in San Francisco. For fans, this is exciting, and it might make for the most Mankato hype since Brett Favre. But tread with caution. The Vikings could be entrusting a great deal to this crop of rookies – maybe too much.
Let’s evaluate the talent before taking inventory of the situation.
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Minnesota took the draft’s top cornerback in Trae Waynes with the 11th pick, setting the stage for the Michigan State grad to start on the outside, opposite Xavier Rhodes. “For us to get a guy,” said head coach Mike Zimmer, “that has size, which is important to me, outstanding speed, 4.31 in the 40 [yard dash], excellent ball skills, great competitor, big heart, those things are all really important. We’re extremely excited to get him here … and put him to work.”
Zimmer, who’s been around for many waves of apparently promising rookies, said Waynes picked up techniques on Day 1 of mini-camp as well as any corner he’d ever seen – though he jokingly chastised media the following week for going overboard with the quote. The quietly confident youngster shapes up to be a dynamic cover corner, and he’ll have every opportunity to win the starting job immediately like Rhodes did in 2013. Josh Robinson and Captain Munnerlyn didn’t meet standards in Zimmer’s first year, so the coach brought in 36-year-old Terence Newman – a student of Zimmer’s system – to compete for the job before drafting Waynes on April 30. Chalk it up to the will of a defensively-obsessed head coach who wants every piece to be perfect, but the Vikings appeared to desperately want a boost at cornerback, reportedly going as far as saying they’d demand one in a potential Adrian Peterson trade.
The writing is on the wall for change at corner, and if Waynes can beat out Newman, who turns 37 before Week 1, then you’ve got Rookie No. 1 inserted in the lineup.
Round 2 of the draft yielded another plug-‘n-play rookie from UCLA, Eric Kendricks, who the Vikings have already targeted as their starting middle linebacker. How do we know? Because Mike Zimmer basically told us. “We’re going to start him at Mike linebacker and see where it goes,” he said. “We believe that eventually down the road he’ll be a Will linebacker for us.” To quickly translate, Mike means middle; Will means weakside. The current Will is vet Chad Greenway, who is likely on a farewell tour this season. His spot will certainly be there for the taking next year, so naturally, it makes sense for Kendricks to slide into Greenway’s Will spot in 2016. So why else would the Vikings put Kendricks in the middle and have him practice at a different position all season? Easy: They need a starter at Mike, and that’s Kendricks.
Since E.J. Henderson gruesomely broke his leg in 2009, and effectively ended his run as a productive middle linebacker, the Vikings’ rush defense has been in decline. Other factors come into play as well, like the departure of nose tackle Pat Williams, but since the 2009 season, in which the Vikings were second-best in rush defense, they’ve finished ninth, 11th, 11th, 16th and 25th. In the Vikings’ eyes, a tough tackler like Kendricks could change the landscape of the second level.
The former teammate of Anthony Barr had experience in college getting thrust into a Mike role after spending time on the outside. “I started off at a weakside backer really young,” said Kendricks at rookie camp. “Our middle linebacker (Patrick Larimore) got hurt, unfortunately had to retire, so I was forced into the middle, so I had to learn to make calls two weeks from the game. So I was kind of forced into it, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”
Kendricks’ primary competition will come from free agent signee Casey Matthews and three late-round picks out of previous drafts: Audie Cole, Michael Mauti and Brandon Watts. The incumbent, Jasper Brinkley, has moved on to Dallas, however, after his second stint in Minnesota. That means no previous starter will be standing in Kendricks’ way. The job is his for the taking.
So, too, is the right guard spot available for a first-year player. Settle down, that’s not a typo. Brandon Fusco isn’t going anywhere … except to other side of John Sullivan perhaps. It seemed curious during rookie-camp media day when fourth-round pick T.J. Clemmings said he’d practiced exclusively on the right side of the line – the side normally manned by big Phil Loadholt and the newly-extended Fusco. Then the Star Tribune reported that Zimmer was contemplating a swap for Fusco – move him two spots left to provide support for Matt Kalil at Charlie Johnson’s old position – and everything made sense.
The Vikings eyed Clemmings as a guard even before the draft, despite the former Pittsburgh Panther never playing there in college. Clemmings knew this when offensive line coach Jeff Davidson worked him out during the pre-draft process. “He said, ‘If you ever came to the Vikings, we’d probably throw you in there at guard and see how it turned out,’” Clemmings remembers being told.
The college star was expecting to be a first-round pick several months before the draft, as The MMQB detailed in a February story. But a foot injury – now referred to as “phantom” – plunged Clemmings to the fourth round on Day 3 of the draft. “He didn’t even know he was hurt,” said Zimmer. “And I don’t think he is hurt.” The Vikings think they have their own version of La’el Collins – a first-round talent that flew down the board due to unjust circumstances. Clemmings lost out on the first-round money, and may now have to concede the big bucks often associated with being labeled an offensive tackle, but he’s on a team with a glaring need at guard, and the Vikings have a history of taking care of their young linemen when they perform well. Clemmings will be motivated, and he’s in great position to be yet another Week 1 starter.
As if three rookie starters isn’t enough, there’s belief that third-round pick Danielle Hunter will see time in an evolving rotation of defensive ends, similar to how the defensive tackles rotated between Sharrif Floyd, Linval Joseph, Tom Johnson and Shamar Stephen last season. “We probably didn’t rotate quite enough this past year,” said Zimmer, who sparingly gave reps to Corey Wootton, his first defensive end off the bench. “Very, very smart,” the coach went on to say about Hunter. “He’s got very heavy hands. He’s very athletic in the fact that we feel like we can take guys like that and teach them what we’re going to do.”
Stefon Diggs, a fifth-round pick, also profiles as a wild card in the receiving game – someone who could challenge Jarius Wright for reps on offense – and could make noise as the team’s punt returner with Marcus Sherels potentially on the way out.
MyCole Pruitt, another fifth-rounder, could compete for the second tight end job with Rhett Ellison, Chase Ford and Brandon Bostick, none of whom have any kind of stranglehold on the job.
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Let’s cap the what-ifs right there. Three potential rookie starters and three more playing in complementary roles. That’s a lot of youth. And a lot of faith being put in it. The rookies provide promise on paper, but what is that good for except toy airplanes? Draft classes produce as many duds as they do gems. Take 2014’s third-round pick Scott Crichton and fifth-round pick David Yankey as examples. Both were given high grades in the days and weeks following the draft, only to spend the majority of the season as pre-game scratches.
The reality is that most rookies will suffer through growing pains learning the NFL ropes. Some will lack the wherewithal to learn a new scheme, some will lack the strength, some the route-running ability, some the proper attitude. And if this happens in Minnesota, the alternatives at key positions may be less scintillating. Aging Terence Newman was born before David Letterman started his late-night show. Casey Matthews’ claim to fame is being Clay Matthews’ brother. And Joe Berger is still hoping people don’t pronounce his last name like a food you order at McDonald’s.
It’s exciting at the moment to consider that half a dozen rookies could be playing at some point in Week 1, but it’s also scary to think exactly how much is riding on Rick Spielman’s drafting. The Vikings have opened the door for an uncharacteristic number of young players to take huge responsibilities. It may not be a done deal that a 23-year-old Clemmings is better than a 32-year-old Berger. It isn’t surefire that Kendricks will learn to make calls at Mike like Audie Cole can. And perhaps Waynes needs one year to learn under a seasoned veteran.
Essentially, just because rookies haven’t had the chance to screw up yet, doesn’t mean they aren’t flawed. Unknown commodities, for some reason, usually get the benefit of the doubt in fans’ eyes, despite their lack of reps at a professional level. The Vikings, surely not blind to this, understand that draft classes are not always perfect from top to bottom. But it appears like they’re willing to gamble on several rookies being ready to fill holes, which makes this draft class’s progression paramount.
It may dawn on them quickly, though, that not every rookie can be the steal of the draft.
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.”