With the 12th pick, your Minnesota Vikings select...

One of the popular CB's that's often mocked to the Vikings at #12 is Washington CB Trent McDuffie, and in some mocks I've seen, he's selected even with Stingley still on the board. I think one of the alluring traits that McDuffie has w/ the Vikings is that he's more of an off-man/zone style CB that would be more of a fit for a Fangio/Donatell defense that typically plays off-man/zone/quarter-style coverages vs press-man (which is what Zimmer wanted to run).

I'm not very high on McDuffie at 12th overall, mostly because of the value: I don't believe he's on the development track for a CB1 role and with his shorter arms, I think he'll be "out-muscled" on the outside against bigger WR's in the NFL there. He is a good zone CB that can play quarters: just sit back and use his athleticism to read/react, but he doesn't provide the upside that I would value for 12th overall.

In fact, I like his Washington CB teammate, Kyler Gordon, more than I like McDuffie. Gordon has a similar frame (5'11" or 6'0" and just a smidge under 200 lbs), but his arms are longer and he has more experience playing both outside and inside (even mirroring much larger TE's due to his arm size), is more versatile than McDuffie (because Gordon can mirror bigger WR's/TE's, he can play both press-man and off-man/zone), has more production (something both Donatell & O'Connell have eluded to during pressers - having more "playmakers" on defense), is a battler tackler than McDuffie (is one of the best open-field CB tacklers in this class, battling w/ Booth Jr for that title, IMO) and he exceled on ST at Washington. There's just so much more to Gordon's resume and tape than McDuffie's, and with both having similar RAS scores (Gordon's RAS is 9.69 and McDuffie's is 9.47), I'll take Gordon.

Early-on in the Draft season I liked Florida's K Elam as a CB prospect in Rd 1 if we traded back to the back-end of Round 1, but he's more suited for press-man than zone, IMO, and I think I might like Kyler Gordon as a trade-back Rd 1 prospect more. Surely, if we don't go CB in Rd 1 and he's on the board at our pick in Rd 2, I would definitely take him.