DAILY CLIPS THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 LOCAL NEWS: Thursday, April 2, 2020 Star Tribune Will the Vikings pick a QB in first three rounds of NFL Draft? By Michael Rand https://www.startribune.com/will-the-vikings-pick-a-qb-in-first-three-rounds-of-nfl-draft/569283082/ NFL draft without fans is nothing new By Sid Hartman https://www.startribune.com/nfl-draft-without-fans-is-nothing-new/569304972/ SKOR North Let’s make a deal: What was the Vikings’ rush to trade Chris Doleman? By Judd Zulgad https://www.skornorth.com/2020/04/lets-make-a-deal-what-was-the-vikings-rush-to-trade-chris-doleman/ Can the Vikings afford to pass on a top receiver? By Matthew Coller https://www.skornorth.com/2020/04/can-the-vikings-afford-to-pass-on-a-top-receiver/ The Athletic Execs unfiltered on every NFL team’s free agency moves and trades By Mike Sando https://theathletic.com/1715455/2020/04/01/execs-unfiltered-on-every-nfl-teams-free-agency-moves-and-trades/ NATIONAL NEWS: Thursday, April 2, 2020 Maven Media Vikings NFL Draft: Three Middle-Round Defensive Ends With Athletic Upside By Will Ragatz https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/vikings-nfl-draft-defensive-ends-athletic-upside Dalvin Cook, Danielle Hunter Donating Madden Checks to Local Hospital By Will Ragatz https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/dalvin-cook-danielle-hunter-donating-madden-checks-local-hospital MULTIMEDIA NEWS: Thursday, April 2, 2020 Reaction to NFL Playoff Expansion By KMSP http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=c0457679-1b71-4987-952c-d67ac4f99751 VIKINGS ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK: Thursday, April 2, 2020 Lunchbreak: Kendricks Helping COVID-19 Relief with Original Paintings By Eric Smith https://www.vikings.com/news/lunchbreak-eric-kendricks-helping-covid-19-relief-with-original-paintings Minnesota Vikings Foundation Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic By Lindsey Young https://www.vikings.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-vikings-foundation-responding Vikings Salute Retiring Director of Security By Lindsey Young https://www.vikings.com/news/vikings-salute-retiring-director-of-security PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 4/2/20 Will the Vikings pick a QB in first three rounds of NFL Draft? By Michael Rand It’s now April 1, and this is no joke: After a horrendous month of March, we can at least start to try to think about warmer weather, better times ahead and actual things on the sports calendar. Chief among them: The NFL Draft, which is going on as scheduled April 23-25 — albeit in a different form, with prospects and their families not in attendance and everything being handled virtually. (You can still boo Roger Goodell from a safe distance, however). On the most recent Access Vikings podcast, we talked about the Vikings’ draft strategy — and whether they might pick a quarterback with a meaningful selection. Let’s say that means sometime in the first three rounds, when Minnesota has five choices — two firsts (including one from Buffalo in the Stefon Diggs trade), a second and two thirds (including a compensatory pick). Here are three reasons it makes sense that they would pick a QB with one of those five picks — and three reasons it doesn’t make sense. DRAFT A QUARTERBACK? YES! 1 Kirk Cousins’ contract: You’ll actually see this category show up in both sections. Here’s why it appears on the “yes” side: His extension, agreed to a couple weeks ago, only added two years to his deal for three years total. And it does not, as our Ben Goessling noted on the podcast, include a no-trade clause (which was part of his original deal). Even if Cousins remains the starter here all three years, that’s a short enough period of time to consider either a succession plan or a backup plan as early as this draft. 2 Speaking of which, the Vikings clearly want a better backup quarterback in 2020. A month ago at the Scouting Combine, head coach Mike Zimmer said this about the No. 2 spot: “We want to be able to have somebody who, if he has to go in for three games, can win those three games. It’s not to be another coach for Kirk, OK? It’s for somebody who can help you with that, but at the end of the day he’s got to be able to play, too.” That didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of 2019 backup Sean Mannion. The Vikings did bring back Mannion on a veteran minimum deal for 2020, but they could easily cut him with little penalty if they found someone they liked more in the draft and that player beat out Mannion for the backup spot. And that player — let’s say he was taken with the No. 89 pick in the third round — would be on a rookie scale deal making about as Mannion with far more upside. 3 A drafted QB almost certainly would be, at best, a backup in 2020 and probably 2021. If that’s as good as he was, it would still be worth it. But what if he developed into a truly special player — a Russell Wilson type (also a third- round pick)? Taking a shot with a reasonably high pick is the Vikings’ most viable path to hit a home run, even if Cousins is an above-average option right now who led the Vikings to a playoff win last season. DRAFT A QB? NO WAY! 1 Cousins’ health and contract push quarterback pretty low on the priority list. If the Vikings were going into the draft without having extended Cousins, this would be a much different conversation. But his high-dollar deal over the next three years — combined with the fact that he has been healthy for every start over the last five years — could mean that finding another QB (even as a backup) isn’t urgent in the draft a few weeks from now. Honestly, the time to do it was the 2019 draft — so they could have a year to evaluate before having to decide on a Cousins extension. 2 Perhaps the biggest reason to think the Vikings won’t take a QB in the first three rounds is that it’s simply not in their DNA to pick one unless they absolutely need one (Teddy Bridgewater in 2014, Christian Ponder in 2011, Tarvaris Jackson in 2006). We can argue the merits of this approach, but history is history. 3 They have a lot of other roster holes to fill. The Vikings need offensive linemen, defensive linemen, defensive backs and a skilled wide receiver — among other things — after having a lot of roster turnover in free agency (much of it necessitated by salary cap issues and a desire to get younger). With so many positions of need, drafting a QB could be seen logically as a luxury. Maybe what ends up happening is some sort of compromise — drafting a QB, but maybe a little later like the fourth or fifth round. We’ll have plenty of time to mull it over and look for clues in the next few weeks. PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 4/2/20 NFL draft without fans is nothing new By Sid Hartman The NFL draft is going to still take place April 23-25, a rare sports event being held as scheduled when so many leagues around the world have suspended normal operations because of the COVID-19 outbreak. For Vikings fans of a certain age, it might seem impossible that the draft will still be televised and take place without a big audience cheering or booing each pick. The size of the draft these days is impossible to undersell, and it’s a big reason why Meet Minneapolis events staff and the Vikings have been pitching so hard to bring the draft to the Twin Cities in the near future. The Tennessean reported that the 2019 draft in Nashville set a record for spending by 600,000 visitors to the city over three days, bringing in $132.8 million. The previous record was set in Dallas in 2018 with $74 million in direct spending. Calculating those numbers are complicated but it factors in hotel data, tax collections and surveys to try and understand how much tourism-related money entered the local economy. Will Vikings pick a QB in first three rounds of the draft? Should they? Will Vikings pick a QB in first three rounds of the draft? Should they? After a horrendous month of March, we can at least start to try to think about warmer weather, better times ahead and actual things on the sports calendar. And while it’s hard to imagine that Las Vegas will be without a big influx of fans in three weeks, the NFL draft of years past didn’t encourage fans to attend and barely attracted any media coverage. That’s why ESPN knows they can still put on an amazing show and drive up big advertising revenue for the event. Last year 47.5 million people watched the event in 115 countries. It would not surprise me to see that number tripled if the sports world is still locked down when the draft takes place. 1961 draft slog For fans wondering what it was like to follow a draft without a big national audience, take a look at the 1961 NFL draft, which took place on December 27-28, 1960, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia. The Vikings were entering their inaugural season and had the first overall pick, which they used on Tulane running back Tommy Mason. How different were the times? Mason was drafted on Tuesday and four days later played in the East-West Bowl, something that would never happen today because of the risk of injury.