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Vikings Select Akayleb Evans, CB Missouri at #118


SemperFeist

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This is a pick I think I'll try to revisit in a few years and compare to the Ravens pick of Armour-Davis, whom I assume the Vikings felt like they had to jump ahead of to get. Of course pretty good chance neither guy is anything more than a backup long term, but this seemed very much like the front office knew Baltimore was going to pick a corner and have it potentially be Evans who I can only assume the Vikings must've liked.

Dont really know enough about the player to say much beyond the obvious size comparison to Armour-Davis (both about 6'2 197lbs) and both supposedly being solid press corners that tackle well... so I have to assume there was definitely something the Vikings had to like over Armour-Davis, especially given the pedigree of Bama DBs coached by Saban.

This is one of those moves that will either make the scouting dept and front office look smart or perhaps a bit silly down the line. At the very least, it looks smart from a front office perspective now, knowing that clearly Baltimore was picking a CB in the mold of these two guys.

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3 minutes ago, Ares Caesar said:

This is a pick I think I'll try to revisit in a few years and compare to the Ravens pick of Armour-Davis, whom I assume the Vikings felt like they had to jump ahead of to get. Of course pretty good chance neither guy is anything more than a backup long term, but this seemed very much like the front office knew Baltimore was going to pick a corner and have it potentially be Evans who I can only assume the Vikings must've liked.

Dont really know enough about the player to say much beyond the obvious size comparison to Armour-Davis (both about 6'2 197lbs) and both supposedly being solid press corners that tackle well... so I have to assume there was definitely something the Vikings had to like over Armour-Davis, especially given the pedigree of Bama DBs coached by Saban.

This is one of those moves that will either make the scouting dept and front office look smart or perhaps a bit silly down the line. At the very least, it looks smart from a front office perspective now, knowing that clearly Baltimore was picking a CB in the mold of these two guys.

Evans played a lot of zone coverage, although they felt he had the traits to play man.  Perhaps that is the difference if A-D was more press.  

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Anyone else disappointed that they did not really even talk about him on the ESPN draft coverage and they did not have any highlights of him either?

 

Sure might check it out on youtube but still super pissed they did not take Woolen or McCollum two corners who are just as tall as Evans and both are way more athletic and gifted.  Even at the Senior bowl McCollum and Woolen impressed me more than Evans did.  

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8 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Anyone else disappointed that they did not really even talk about him on the ESPN draft coverage and they did not have any highlights of him either?

 

Sure might check it out on youtube but still super pissed they did not take Woolen or McCollum two corners who are just as tall as Evans and both are way more athletic and gifted.  Even at the Senior bowl McCollum and Woolen impressed me more than Evans did.  

But evans impressed the Vikings more? The Vikings literally took evans over a bevy of boundary corners, and started the cb run in the 4th and 5th.  We’ll see if they were right. 
 

Woolens tape was…bad. I watched a decent amount, it’s rough. It’s understandable because he’s a wr convert but the development time is going to be long. 
 

mccollums competition was so low that I dunno what meaningful takeaways could be had. 

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11 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

but still super pissed they did not take Woolen or McCollum two corners who are just as tall as Evans and both are way more athletic and gifted

You make it sound like evans is chopped liver athletically. While woolen and McCollum tested as 100 percentile RAS athletes, evans was 94th percentile. He’s still extremely athletic. 

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35 minutes ago, battle2heaven said:

You make it sound like evans is chopped liver athletically. While woolen and McCollum tested as 100 percentile RAS athletes, evans was 94th percentile. He’s still extremely athletic. 

Woolen ran a 4.26 40 and had a 42" vertical at 6-4 205
McCollum ran 4.33 and had a 39.5" vertical at 6-2 199 and had a 6.48 3 cone which was the best out of the entire combine.

 

Those are not just ok numbers who are outstanding numbers for tall corners.

 

 

Evans ran a 4.46 40 with 36" vertical at 6-2 197.  

 

Granted if Evans was wildly more productive that is one thing but he was not, 1 INT in five years of college football.  Sure Woolen was not wildly productive but three of his five years of college football he was a WR like everyone knows and McCollum was productive at the level he played and usually a small school DB that is a great athlete does just fine in the NFL.  Sure maybe Evans will be just fine I am still surprised they passed on Woolen or McCollum because athletically those are amazing numbers and both have huge upside.  

 

But yes they passed on many corners, Jack Jones has a rough past but he is way better than Evans, better ball skills, better reaction time, better productive just had the off the field stuff which he has cleaned up a bit recently.  Joshua Williams I liked as well, another huge corner that was an impressive athlete and could be a great safety, I like him technically better than Evans but I do think he will move to safety and Vikings needed a corner.  But yeah hopefully Evans turns out to be better but he could easily not and Woolen could be a super star on Seattle and McCollum I have little doubt will be a stud on the Bucs who really know good corners and draft well at the CB spot.  

 

Vikings also passed on Marcus Jones who was really impressive in the 3rd but I would take the Evans pick if the Vikings did not pass on Dean, Clark, Muma, Travis Jones, Christian Harris, Tindall and Chenal to get Asamoah in the 3rd.  That still is nuts to me.    

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4 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Woolen ran a 4.26 40 and had a 42" vertical at 6-4 205
McCollum ran 4.33 and had a 39.5" vertical at 6-2 199 and had a 6.48 3 cone which was the best out of the entire combine.

 

Those are not just ok numbers who are outstanding numbers for tall corners.

 

 

Evans ran a 4.46 40 with 36" vertical at 6-2 197.  

 

Granted if Evans was wildly more productive that is one thing but he was not, 1 INT in five years of college football.  Sure Woolen was not wildly productive but three of his five years of college football he was a WR like everyone knows and McCollum was productive at the level he played and usually a small school DB that is a great athlete does just fine in the NFL.  Sure maybe Evans will be just fine I am still surprised they passed on Woolen or McCollum because athletically those are amazing numbers and both have huge upside.  

 

But yes they passed on many corners, Jack Jones has a rough past but he is way better than Evans, better ball skills, better reaction time, better productive just had the off the field stuff which he has cleaned up a bit recently.  Joshua Williams I liked as well, another huge corner that was an impressive athlete and could be a great safety, I like him technically better than Evans but I do think he will move to safety and Vikings needed a corner.  But yeah hopefully Evans turns out to be better but he could easily not and Woolen could be a super star on Seattle and McCollum I have little doubt will be a stud on the Bucs who really know good corners and draft well at the CB spot.  

 

Vikings also passed on Marcus Jones who was really impressive in the 3rd but I would take the Evans pick if the Vikings did not pass on Dean, Clark, Muma, Travis Jones, Christian Harris, Tindall and Chenal to get Asamoah in the 3rd.  That still is nuts to me.    

Lots of fast guys who didn’t amount to anything in the NFL. 

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13 minutes ago, Hagar said:

You must be one of those glass half full kinda people....

Like in the recent GEICO commercial, I believe those people are incredibly rare.  We're like the sumatran rhinocerous in becoming rarer every day.  

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