After an 8-8 season and seeing the various deficiencies in this team, where do they go in the draft?

I see the real team needs as being a pass rushing DE being number one, #1 WR and a go-to TE as other high needs and I believe our safeties need to start getting younger. What prospects would be an immediate impact on the roster? What prospects would Chili be most likely to take?

Needs
1. Qb Jackson is not good and will never be good
2. S Kenny Phillips would do wonders for this team, unfourtunatly they cant get him.
3. Wr But it needs to be a wr taken in the 1 round
4. De Many people think this is the biggest need, but Udeze is good and so is Brian Robinson
5. Lb Dontarius Thomas and Chad Greenway were both busts leaving them empty handed at olb.

thanks for the input but i'm not sure if you watch a lot of Vikes games...

No, I do not watch a lot of Vikings games. But, what makes my point wrong.

What makes your point wrong is two fold:

Jackson was the only good part of the QB core. He won every game the team won this year and improved from the beginning of the season to the end. What they need to do there is drop Holcomb and Bollinger and bring is some actual talent.

Also, Greenway was second on the team in tackles behind Henderson, he was a great run blitzer and wasn't a complete liability in coverage.

I think that the fact that the Vikings have picked a CB/S in the first since 1994 is a big problem. Winfield is nice, but he is getting old and I am not sold completely on Griffin and McCauley and Sharper/Smith are old/ineffective. I wouldn't mind trading down a bit either to pick Aqib Talib later in the first, he has the same dimensions as Sharper and runs a 4.45. Plus we get get another 2nd or third for moving down and help target WR/TE/OT/DE/CB/S. I would also like to see them draft either Owen Schmitt or Peyton Hillis to work behind Richardson for a year. I think both of those guys are going to make an impact at the FB position.

A CB would be okay, but I do like your thoughts on a TE and WR too. You have a pretty good D, so adding young players with potential for the future, and depth is a good idea. To improve and balance your offense, thus helping take more pressure off your D, Jackson needs more targets. The problem with taking a WR in round 1, as I'm sure you're well aware of, is the difficulty in assessing how their skills transpose to the pro game...TE is usually not so difficult, and there are two out there who could really help you...the question is how high do you want to draft one of them, and will there be one of them left for you in the 2nd? I personally think Fred Davis is going to be a really good receiving TE in the NFL.

I like Fred Davis as a potential TE for us... Shiancoe has proven to me that his hands aren't as good as hoped for by this regime.

Any thoughts on moving Winfield back to FS?

No. Keep Sharper at FS and if Kenny Phillips doesn't fall to the Vikings, Move Winfield to SS. He is a great tackler and they should want to keep him close to the line of scrimmage to help the run game.

Of course in our Cover 2 scheme both the safeties are on relative even positions on the field. Better stated as, Winfield to one of our safety spots...

Down. jk

I think ur needs r:
1. DE
2. QB
3. WR
4. OLB
5. TE

I don't think u should use ur 1st rd pick on a QB, like a lot of experts r saying. Tarvaris is ok, and I think Udeze is a bust. Go for Calais in the 1st, and some1 like Hardy, Manningham, or Bowman in the 2nd. Maybe some1 like Flacco, Henne, or Booty will fall to u in the 3rd.

I'd go with... DE/WR/TE as my first three major needs.

Did anybody hear Peter King say that EJ Henderson might be the best MLB in the league?

My bad, I meant OLB. But there's no way that E.J. is the best.

Agreed! EJ isn't the best but he's borderline probowl material at moment... hopefully he'll continue to improve.

Just trade AP to the pack! Then everything will work out!!

Lol, u can have Ryan Grant for him. I'm sure u don't need that RB who's always injured, right?

My views on improvements for the Vikes in 2008:

1) Quality #1 WR - I hear Fitzgerald wants out of Arizona - get him if possible.

2) Experienced QB brought in. Not necessarily to start, but to teach Tavaris.

3) Agreed regarding TE. Need better (more consistent) hands.

4) More youth on Defense. Current group only has 2-3 years left of being top notch.

5) More "confusing" blitz packages on defense (see NYG game film for more details).

6) Offense must become more diverse in play calls - very mundane as it is now. Put both Taylor and AD in the game at the same time....let the defense guess who it's going to.

7) Bolster offensive line...Tarvaris need time to throw.

Personally, I think your biggest need is DE, and one may drop to you that IMO, is going to be very good, if not great. Calais Campbell from Miami. I know he didn't have the year he had last year, but I still see star written all over him in the NFL. When he gets to the combine, I believe he will compare favorably with Julius Peppers and Mario Williams. I'd look WR, S, and TE later, but if Campbell is there, that's who I'd pick if I were drafting for you.

On a follow up note, I will say that I have Campbell rated much, much higher than Phillips, Miami's safety. Phillips, IMO, had a crap year. IMO, the only reason he's rated so high, is the lack of talent at safety in this year's draft. IMO, he will probably be a good player, but he's no Sean Jones or Sean Taylor.

good post kyler...
1) I'm sure Fitz would want to play here, but Arizona isn't going to let him go for nothing... what's his price? Chili values his picks like gold and the Cards should value Fitz in that same fashion.
2) I could see Steve McNair being a cap casualty and a valid backup at this point in his career.
3) I'd like to see Fred Davis or Martin Rucker drafted here... i'm guessing somewhere in the second round.
4) Pass rushing DE and a bit more youth to develop at the safety positions. Dwight Smith has only been around for 6 years or so but Sharper is on his last legs IMO. The DBs would perform better with increased pressure from the front four... also fitting more into the cover 2 scheme.
5) If we get more consistent pressure from the front four the amount of blitz packages could be reduced in general. Our pass D strength (if you can say we have one) is underneath coverage. Eli throws many of his passes to the underneath side of the WR. We had a good gameplan going into that game.
6) Agreed! they need to utilize both in the same sets more, but need to use their decoy as the playmaker more. There's no point to using AD as a decoy if you never throw him the ball out there.
7) All they need is more consistency from the RT position. Herrera is solidifying himself as our starter at RG. Cook is a work-in-progress at RT, but I'm not sure if there will be a better option available to them in the draft that will consistently produce.