Vikings Visits

This appears to be the week that NFL teams really start bringing collegiate prospects to their facilities for a visit. Some of these visits have been taking place for weeks and more will be taking place over the next few weeks as we inch closer to the draft. This is a big week for some teams and a lot of prospects. Each team is allowed 30 official visits. Whether they use them and how they use them is up to the team. For years now, the Minnesota Vikings have been bringing in a bunch of prospects all at once. It's a gathering of college football talent. They call this gathering their "annual top-30 prospects prospects event." It's hardly that. There's rarely 30 in attendance and the invites aren't necessarily the top players on their draft board. They host these visits in this manner partly, if not mainly, to see how the players interact with one another. A sociology experiment with an eye toward building a Super Bowl champ. They don't use up all 30 of their visits in this one shot but they use up a bunch of them. As far as I know the Vikings don't release a list of those in attendance at the gathering. Fans and the media are left to piece the list together from various sources. The most common source is the players themselves. Here is a list of 19 collegiate prospects that have come to Minnesota to visit with Vikings.

Briean Boddy-Calhoun, CB, Minnesota
Moritz Boehringer, WR, N/A
De'Vondre Campbell, LB, Minnesota
K.J. Dillon, S, West Virginia
Josh Doctson, WR, TCU
T.J. Green, S, Clemson
Darrell Greene, OL, San Diego State
Rashard Higgins, WR, Colorado State
Tyrone Holmes, DE, Montana
Germain Idedi, OL, Texas A&M
Denver Kirkland, G, Arkansas
Darron Lee, LB, Ohio State
K.J. Maye, WR, Minnesota
Eric Murray, CB, Minnesota
Rees Odhiambo, OL, Boise State
Reggie Ragland, LB, Alabama
Ryan Smith, CB, North Carolina Central
Laquon Treadwell, WR, Mississippi
Stephen Weatherly, DE, Vanderbilt

Some of the above might have come as a group. Some might have come individually.

It's possible that the four University of Minnesota players were part of a different sort of visit as the school is so close to the team facility. For all I know simply visiting with those four players on campus might count as four of the 30 official visits because of that close proximity.

It's always interesting to see these lists but we have to tread lightly in placing too much importance on them. There can be a variety of reasons for a team to invite a player to their faciltiy. The most obvious reason is that they are interested in drafting the player. A less obvious reason might be that they want to confirm that they are not interested in drafting the player. To see if they are justified in taking that player off of the draft board. The invite could also be a smokescreen. Who really knows why NFL teams do what they do. As interesting as the players that a team invites is the positions of the players that a team invites. Of the 19 players that have visited the Vikings, five are receivers and four are offensive linemen. That should hardly be a surprise as those are the two of their greatest needs.

Since 2013 the following players visited the Vikings facilities in their draft years.

Sharrif Floyd, DT, Florida
Cordarrelle Patterson, Tennessee
Anthony Barr, LB, UCLA
Teddy Bridgewater, QB, Louisville
Trae Waynes, CB, Michigan State

The Vikings selected each of them in the first round of their drafts. Is that just a coincidence? The only first round pick of the Vikings during that time that didn't visit the team before the draft was Florida State corner Xavier Rhodes.