Vikes Rumor Mill - Jared Allen in town
KC Chief defensive end Jared Allen was in town this past weekend talking to the Vikes. He is franchised by the Chiefs and the Vikes would have to give up at least their draft picks of 17, 73, and 82 overall to land him.
Allen is 26 years old, had 15.5 sacks last year, has 43 sacks in his career. Off-the-field drinking problems lead to a 2 game suspension last year (when he still had 15.5 sacks) and he has apparently sobered up. Sounds familiar (Koren Robinson.) Maybe we get a DUI-discount on his salary.
I don't think we would be giving up too much to get this guy. Adding him to the Williams Wall as a real threat on the end with our much improved linebacking corps takes the pressure off our aging defensive backs. Honestly, who are the Vikes going to get at any of their 3 draft choices that will have an immediate impact like Allen would?
Oh, and in his "first game back from the suspension against the Vikings, he had nine tackles, two sacks, a pressure and a pass defended. He also forced Adrian Peterson to fumble."
5 Comments:
I definitely think the Vikes should get this guy. In the last 13 years the Viking's have drafted 6 defensive line man in the first round. All of them except Kevin Williams have been busts. The busts include: Derrick Alexander, Chris Hovan, Demetrius Underwood, Kenechi Udeze (tough luck story) and Erasmus James (who i thought would be a stud and was very excited about). According to Wikipedia it counts Duane Clemons as a LB, I would count him as an undersized DE bust bringing the list up to 6 busts and 1 guy who panned out. I say give up the picks and go with the proven commodity, despite the fact that he probably does not get 15.5 sacks while wearing purple.
I would not give up Mckinney as the idiot in the forum under the article suggests. Stud left tackles are even harder to find than pass rushing DEs.
April 21, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Dudes, let's nab this guy. We have 10 picks in the draft this year, so I have no problem dumping a couple of them (including the #17). Given our history in the first round, spending big guaranteed $$ on a proven guy is better than gambling on some supposed stud out of Clemson that Mel Kiper likes.
Seems that the Chiefs want a first and second, while the Vikes are offering a first and third. Tampa appears to be the only other interested team, but they only have like 5 picks in the draft, and their first rounder is 3 spots lower than ours. Bottom line is we may be negotiating against ourselves here.
April 21, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Hey, at leasy Chilly gets our first round picks in on time.
I can't disagree with the general analysis. I just have two questions: is this the kind of guy who would have been on the Love Boat cruise? I'm not psyched about "off the field problems" when it comes to the Vikes these days. Also, isn't it too early to give up on Erasmus James? Didn't we just draft that guy, and hasn't he had some serious injuries?
Remember when the Vikings were synonymous with a good pass rush? Seems like decades ago. I guess it has been close to ten years since Randle was terrorizing people in purple warpaint.
Also, unrelated comment, but I think we should dedicate our 5th or 6th round pick every year to taking an unheralded QB until we get lucky and find our very own Tom Brady.
April 21, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Agree that it might be too early to say Erasmus is done but it is probably safe to say his career is not looking as bright as it once was.
I hate the off the field problems that the Vikes have become known for, we are the poor man's Bengals.
As for the idea to take an unheralded QB late in the draft, I say why not. Hell, we took one in round 2 and he is starting this year.
At the very least, the bright spot of Jared Allen is that no where in any analysis of his performance did I read or hear that he has "a great motor." Peter King thinks we wait until after the draft to make the deal and don't give up more than our #17 pick. I'm gonna guess that the front office negotiates against itself like BG said and we somehow give up way, way too much. I, however, would be fine with our top 3 picks in this draft.
April 21, 2008 at 2:28 PM
Here are James's career stats:
Years Exp 3
Games 38
Solo tackles 31
Assts 7
Sacks 5
Knee surgeries 3
I hope he can contribute something but at this point I am not holding my breath that he becomes the next Chris Doleman.
Side note, James was taken in the same draft as oven mitts.
April 21, 2008 at 2:37 PM
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