It would be a mistake to ever bring up the 2005 NFL Draft in front of a Minnesota Vikings fan. Put simply, the draft was a disaster. Take a look:
1. Troy Williamson, WR, South Carolina
1. Erasmus James. DE, Wisconsin
2. Marcus Johnson, T, Mississippi
3. Dustin Fox, DB, Ohio St.
4. Ciatrick Fason, RB, Florida
6. C.J. Mosley, DT, Missouri
7. Adrian Ward, CB, Texas-El Paso
The trade of Randy Moss to the Oakland Raiders gave the Vikings an extra 1st- and an extra 7th-round pick. The Vikings used those extra picks to select Troy Williamson and Adrian Ward. The loss of Moss created a need for a pass catcher and the Vikings just had to fill it with that top pick from Oakland. How else can you explain the forced pick of Williamson? He was fast. Really fast. But he couldn't catch. Terrible hands. He had a three-year, drop-filled career with the Vikings. 39 games. 22 starts. His best year was 2006 when he caught 37 passes for 455 yards and 0 touchdowns. Erasmus James didn't fare much better as a pass rusher. He often didn't seem to care. Other times he was hurt. Three years. 23 games. 12 starts. He had four sacks as a rookie but only frustration after that. Marcus Johnson had the best Vikings career of the 2005 draft selections. It was also the longest at only four years. 47 games. 18 starts. Dustin Fox never played a game for the Vikings. He broke his arm in training camp and spent his rookie season on injured reserve. He was released in September 2006. I heard that he has a radio show now. The Vikings traded their 4th- and 5th-round picks to the Washington Redskins to move up in the 4th-round to select Ciatrick Fason. His Vikings career lasted two years. 18 games. 0 starts. He did score five touchdowns. That nearly doubled Williamson's three-year production of three. C.J. Mosley has had the most productive NFL career of the Vikings 2005 draft selections. Unfortunately only one year of his 11-year career was spent in Minnesota. He was traded to the New York Jets in 2006 for Brooks Bollinger. The Vikings were desperate for quarterbacks. Mosley played more games than the rest of the 2005 picks combined. Adrian Ward didn't make it out of his first training camp. There was about zero production for the Vikings from this draft. The only player that had anything resembling an NFL career was Mosley and he didn't have that career with the Vikings. This is the sort of draft that keeps the average NFL playing career at about three years. Head coach Mike Tice was fired following the 2005 season. When Brad Childress was hired to replace Tice the Vikings dipped into the free agency well far more often than they ever have. They had to supplement the talent void that was created by the 2005 draft.
What might have been.
The Vikings passed on Aaron Rodgers twice in the 2005 NFL Draft. That really wasn't much of a surprise, at the time, as Daunte Culpepper had his best season in 2004. His bright Vikings career seemed assured at the time of the draft. Unfortunately, his last season in Minnesota was 2005. So passing on Rodgers twice became quite painful. The Vikings could have had DeMarcus Ware and Roddy White rather than Troy Williamson and Erasmus James. They passed on Vincent Jackson, Frank Gore, Justin Tuck, and Trent Cole. It's a foolish task to look back on a draft and redo it. It's pointless. The Vikings 2005 draft was such a disaster that it's hard not to look back and hope that it never happens again.
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