Count Randy Taylor among those impressed with the Vikings’ draft last weekend. He thinks the team’s decision makers such as vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman pulled off one of the best drafts in the NFL. “I don’t think there’s any question it’s an A (letter grade),” Taylor told Sports Headliners.
Taylor is the Gophers’ director of football operations. For the past five years he worked for Taylor Scouting Services and Scout.com as the Director of NFL Experts. He is knowledgeable about many players drafted through the NFL’s seven rounds last Saturday and Sunday.
Taylor talked with enthusiasm about the Vikings’ choices in rounds one, two and three, running back Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma, wide receiver Sidney Rice of South Carolina and corner back Marcus McCauley of Fresno State. “Adrian Peterson is a guy that is so talented; (if) he stays healthy he’s a dominant player,” Taylor said. “Rice I think has great upside and McCauley, those three guys are all first round possible guys. …”
Taylor said Rice is an “explosive” player and a “heck of a prospect.” McCauley’s size (about 6-1, 203), physical style and ability to run meant he “could have been a first round draft choice,” Taylor said.
“Another guy I really like is (linebacker) Rufus Alexander from Oklahoma. …I thought he could be a first day draft choice,” Taylor said. “He slipped all the way to the sixth round.”
That, of course, raises the question as to why players like Rice, McCauley and Alexander (he was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year) weren’t chosen earlier. The short answer is time will tell. The longer response is draft order can be impacted by what other teams need and sometimes teams see real or imagined issues with players and others may see those issues differently.
Taylor was asked about players from throughout the draft that may surprise, guys who might eventually emerge as higher valued selections than they are now. “I still kind of think the old Ohio State quarterback (Troy Smith) could perform better than a lot of people have given him credit for. I think a lot of people put too much weight on his last game (national championship against Florida).
“Ted Ginn, Jr. (Ohio State) to me is a talent guy and the jury is still out on whether he’s worth the ninth pick (by Miami) in the draft. He can run and add something to a football team that can change a game. Ted Ginn may win a couple of games for them that a solid first round draft choice may not. ….So those are two guys who took a lot of heat for different reasons and I would guess those guys will out perform what people think of them.”
Smith, who won the Heisman Trophy and led the Buckeyes to a No. 1 ranking, waited until the fifth round to be selected by Baltimore.