The Minnesota Vikings and the St. Louis Rams may have talked a trade for Sam Bradford heading into the NFL draft and the teams could pull off a move for the QB if they opt to take Blake Bortles or Johnny Manziel with the number two of number 13 pick on Thursday in the first round.
The Minnesota Vikings have a top 10 pick in the 2014 NFL draft and after going 5-10-1 last season many draft experts think the team will be in the mix for a quarterback, as Christian Ponder is the only player currently under contract and this year the position is deep, with names like Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr, Zach Mettenberger, Logan Thomas, David Fales, Connor Shaw and Aaron Murray all in the class.
According to ESPN.com, Matt Cassel is voiding the last year of his contract with the Vikings to become a free agent after starting six games for the team and playing in nine and there is a chance he will get a starting job elsewhere. The Vikings could look to trade Ponder, but it's more likely that they will add a veteran quarterback like Michael Vick or Josh McCown to compete with him and on top of that, they could add a quarterback in the draft with their first pick or in the later rounds.
Depending on how the top part of the draft goes, the Vikings could have a tough decision or a very easy one -- meaning that if someone like Jadeveon Clowney, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater or Blake Bortles falls, it would be an easy pick, but if those players are gone, they may wait to pick a quarterback. The draft is deep at a number of positions this season and quarterback is one of them along with wide receiver and tight end. It wouldn't be a surprise for the majority of the top 10 to be on the offensive side of the ball and the Vikings could be a part of that and it comes after they used one of their picks last season on Cordarrelle Patterson.
This year wideout is stacked with names like Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins, Marqise Lee and Allen Robinson and if someone like Watkins falls to the Vikings, he might be hard to pass up. Much has been made this season about the size of the quarterbacks in the draft, including Manziel (who came in at under six feet), Carr, Fales, Shaw and Bridgewater, who are all 6-foot-2 or less. Players like Logan Thomas, Aaron Murray, Blake Bortles and Mettenberger all could get extra attention because of their larger size, but someone like Manziel is almost guaranteed to go in the top 10 after his college career and all the teams that could be in the market for a quarterback.
The draft isn't until May, but the Vikings will be battling teams like the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers if they opt to go for a quarterback, as all of those teams could be targeting one of those names.